Garth Brooks Cancels Stadium Tour Amid COVID-19 Resurgence

Garth Brooks has canceled his current stadium tour, citing concerns over the spread of Covid-19 as the reason. Yahoo reports that five dates will be impacted by the cancellation: September 18th in Cincinnati; September 25th in Charlotte, North Carolina; October 2nd in Baltimore; October 9th in Foxborough, Massachusetts; and July 31st in Nashville, Tennessee. Notably, the Nashville concert was previously postponed due to a lightning storm.

One other concert is technically affected as well, a planned show in Seattle, Washington. However, concert tickets had not yet gone on sale for that date. “In July, I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us. Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part,” Brooks said. “With a hopeful heart, we will reschedule and start over when this wave seems to be behind us,” he added.

Even though the pandemic has put a halt to his current tour, Brooks has been playing concerts and putting out records for his dedicated fanbase for more than three decades, and he shows no signs of slowing down. In 2020 he released his 14th full-length studio album, Fun, and it was quite well-received by both fans and critics. While promoting the album, Brooks did an interview with The Tennessean, wherein he spoke about the new album and why his music is only available digitally on Amazon.

“What has happened since Apple’s iPods and phones have come (is) Nashville has lost over 85% of its songwriters,” Brooks told the outlet. “And it’s because the old way of paying songwriters from album sales, where these new kids would come to town and maybe get an album cut, that could keep them here in this town until they got the right ’16th Avenue,’ or “Friends in Low Places’ or ‘Waiting On a Woman.’ That’s how we survived as young songwriters. So that’s kind of out the window.”

Brooks then went on to share that, while digital can be a complicated topic, “vinyl really excites me.” He explained, “When people work so hard to own music, then it’s theirs. Now they’re going to sit and listen through a song that maybe they would say ‘next’ on if they weren’t paying for it. But it’s theirs now. So now (they’re) going to give this every chance in the world. And what happens is, it grows on you. And if the music grows on you, so does the artist.”

Finally, Brooks — a 2021 Kennedy Center Honors recipient — added, “I don’t like how the future of labels and streaming are pointing toward disposable artists. I don’t like that at all. Because this is the one shot you get as an artist. For every new artist out there, I want them to get the best shot.”