Garth Brooks Weighs in on Possible Music Festival Run (Exclusive)

Garth Brooks might be in the midst of a huge Las Vegas residency, but he’s already thinking about what could come next. Brooks unveiled his new TuneIn station, The BIG 615, in Nashville on Thursday and in a PopCulture.com interview after the press conference, the Country Music Hall of Famer weighed in on a possible run of music festival dates. The subject came up when we asked if the “Friends in Low Places” singer was open to playing the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, which is currently taking place about an hour south of Nashville in Manchester, Tennessee. While Brooks didn’t dwell on ‘Roo specifically for too long, he expressed excitement at the prospect of performing a series of festival dates outside of the U.S.

“I don’t know. But what I love about that is you’ll have a country act that you’ve never heard of and go, ‘What’s a country act doing here?’ And then followed by (Paul) McCartney, right? It’s like, holy s—. That’s what I love about the festivals,” Brooks exclusively told PopCulture.com. “And I think if you’re ever going to tour outside America, if we ever did, I think it’d just be from festival to festival. Because, what I love about it, one: is you never know what you’re going to get. But two: when we talk about the inclusiveness, right? Talk about this whole thing that stirred up this last two or three weeks. It’s all about coming together. 

“And when you can cross the genres like that and you get the same customer out there or the same person out there that loves the music, that’s what it’s all about, man. That’s what I love about this. You got a chance to shrink the world. Are you going to take that chance?”

The “Thunder Rolls” and “The Dance” singer’s answer was not only a reference to the Bud Light controversy that’s put him in headlines over the past week, but also his intentions behind The BIG 615. Brooks sees his TuneIn partnership as a way to bring traditional-leaning country music to listeners on a global scale. He clearly believes that music has the power to break down cultural divides and bring people together. 

“The chance we have here with a global country station is to spread love, to spread family. That’s what it’s all about: inclusiveness,” Brooks said during the TuneIn press conference. “(If) we make this world smaller through music, then hopefully we can understand each other and fight less.”

The BIG 615 is just the first TuneIn station Brooks will launch via his SEVENS Radio Network. More station announcements are expected soon. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for more updates from Garth Brooks’ BIG 615 launch, including more from our exclusive interview with the country music icon.

Quick Hits About Garth Brooks:

• Garth Brooks’ wife is Trisha Yearwood. They married on Dec. 10, 2005.
• Garth Brooks has three children with his ex-wife, Sandy Mahl: Taylor Mayne Pearl, August Anna, and Allie Colleen Brooks.
• The “Thunder Rolls” and “Callin’ Baton Rouge” singer has been in the headlines as of late for vowing to serve Bud Light in his upcoming Nashville bar, Low Places. Bud Light has been pulled into a conservative culture war due to a sponsorship deal the brand made with transgender actress Dylan Mulvaney. Garth Brooks is a longtime ally of the LGBTQ+ community and doesn’t care a bit about the backlash. He told Billboard: “We’re going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It’s not our decision to make. Our thing is this, if you [are let] into this house, love one another. If you’re an a–hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.”
  
• Garth Brooks is also known for his work as Chris Gaines, a rockstar alter-ego. He released one album under the Chris Gaines persona but recently revealed he wants to return to the character.
• After wrapping up his recent stadium tour — which earned an extremely positive review from us here at PopCulture.com — Garth Brooks is currently in the midst of a Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The Vegas run is titled “Garth Brooks/Plus ONE.”
• Garth Brooks is a graduate of Oklahoma State University. He returned to the college back in April for two fundraiser concerts.