Garth Brooks Earns His 9th Diamond-Certified Album

Garth Brooks has earned an unprecedented nine diamond-certified albums, learning earlier this month that his 1993 album, In Pieces, has been Diamond certified by the RIAA, signifying sales of more than 10 million copies. The achievement makes him the only artist in any genre to have nine albums certified for sales of 10 million units in the United States, in front of The Beatles, who have six.

Brooks’ other albums that have been certified Diamond include his eponymous debut album, No Fences, Ropin’ The Wind, The Hits, Double Live, Sevens, The Ultimate Hits and The Chase. “The crazy thing that I try to… I try to digest in my head is… Garth Brooks, No Fences, Ropin’, The Chase, In Pieces and The Hits — the first six albums of our career — you guys have taken Diamond,” Brooks said on the Aug. 17 episode of his Facebook Live series, Inside Studio G. “That’s crazy.”

Reflecting on his own personal favorite of his Diamond-certified projects, the 58-year-old named his 1992 album, The Chase. “Now, go ahead — ask me, ask me! What is my favorite Diamond of the nine Diamonds? I’ll tell you right now, The Chase. Hands down,” he said. “It was just so loving, so… so forgiving, so patient, so ‘all those beautiful things’ [but] man, did it get the floor wiped up with it with reviews and just… stuff. And so that was the album that really, really was my baby.”

Brooks also has nine albums that have gone to No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 Chart, an achievement that was recently tied by Kenny Chesney, giving both stars the honor of the most all-time No. 1s on the chart for a country act. Brooks has also been given nearly every award country music has to offer, and compared award shows to Christmas trees during a recent press conference.

“I always said the awards shows were like the Christmas tree is to Christmas. It’s a representative of it. It’s got all the shiny and everything, but it’s not really what Christmas is about, and so that’s the same thing. Awards are sweet,” he told PopCulture.com and other outlets. “We should all get in there, everybody celebrate the other guys winning and girls winning, bands winning, all that stuff. Have a great night, celebrate together, and then go back to what you had already planned anyway.”