Garth Brooks Admits Nerves in Advance of Televised Notre Dame Concert

Garth Brooks’ long-awaited Notre Dame concert is this weekend! The show will take place on Saturday, Oct. 20, marking the first time an artist has performed at the college. Although Brooks was already eager about the historic show, both his excitement and his nerves increased a few weeks ago, when he was approached about making the concert a TV special.

“Everything you know about Notre Dame took a really hard right about three weeks ago, when we found out that CBS was interested in filming Notre Dame,” Brooks explained to PopCulture.com and other media. “We never film anything until the end. So Notre Dame will be at the beginning and the end for us stage-wise.

The concert will be televised for an upcoming TV special, Garth: Live at Notre Dame!, airing on Dec. 2 on CBS. The invitation to air his show on a major network was a pleasant surprise for the 56-year-old, although it also presented a new set of challenges.

“Stuff will go back to the drawing board, [to] modify the stage,” Brooks said. “The last thing I like is to see something on TV and then go and see the exact same thing if I pay a ticket to go sit outside and watch these things. So, we’ll go back to drawing board right after Notre Dame.”

The concert will be televised for an upcoming TV special, Garth: Live at Notre Dame!, airing on Dec. 2 on CBS. Brooks may have been initially hesitant to start his tour with a televised show, but Jack Sussman, Executive Vice President, Music, Specials & Live Events at CBS knew viewers would be captivated by Brooks.

“We have an amazing history with Garth …. We’ve partnered with him at some extraordinary venues: from the enormity of an aircraft carrier, to the intimacy of his one-man show in Las Vegas,” Sussman said. “Now, we are joining forces to bring viewers Garth at his best – a full blown stadium-sized event for television from renowned Notre Dame Stadium. Garth Brooks. Notre Dame. Two icons. One night. It will be a television event to remember.”

Although the Notre Dame show was initially planned for one night only, it will now serve as the official kick-off of Brooks’ recently announced Stadium Tour, which will play in universities and other large venues, for the next three years.

“Notre Dame is kind of like the blueprint of how this is going to be,” Brooks shared. “I will say this. If the whole tour’s gonna be like Notre Dame, I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it because this is the most work that I’ve ever … Well, I don’t know about work, but it’s the most time I’ve ever put into anything. And I think it’s just because it’s just new to us. Crew seems confident. Band sounds fantastic. All the logistics of it is just a, it’s a step up for me, a big step up for me.

“So, Notre Dame, couldn’t have started at a better place,” he continued. “So many people. Great organization. They’re a class act. If you ever follow the top sports identifications to us as Americans, in the top three are the Patriots, the Dallas Cowboys, and Notre Dame. This has just been, a class act. They’ve been great to us. Everything we’ve asked for, they’ve said, ‘Yes.’ Every time we needed help. They said, ‘Yes.’ We were lucky to start with Notre Dame.”

The Notre Dame show is serving as the beginning of Brooks’ stadium tour, but will also be the testing ground for him to try something that he hopes lasts for the duration of the tour.

“We’re gonna try somethin’ at Notre Dame that I hope sticks. It’s called the Student Sound Check,” Brooks revealed. “We have opened it up to anybody with a Student ID and it is free. You’re gonna come in and watch sound check. You’re gonna get to ask questions. ‘Cause there’s gonna be some people in that audience that might want to do this for a living. There’s gonna be some people in that audience that just dream and put all their energy in it.”

Brooks’ wife, Trisha Yearwood, won’t be performing at Notre Dame, but she will still be there. The singer and host of Trisha’s Southern Kitchen will host her own tailgate party, Trisha’s Tailgate Tent.

“Trisha has furniture, she has cooking appliances, she has a cooking show, she does these food and wine festivals all over the country,” boasted Brooks. “Come in, let’s do a tailgate under a big a– tent, right there on the campus, I think every mom and daughter will want to be there. It holds, I can’t imagine, they said, ‘Let’s do something small like 1500 tables.’ Well, 1500 tables no matter what time it is, I can’t imagine it not being packed. All 1500 were gone in a heartbeat. So her tailgate will be happening during that day.

“They’re going to have games and televisions for the dads to watch football games while everybody else is doing their Trisha thing,” he added. “Trisha’s a guy, so she’ll be watching the football game. But she’ll be there to do other things like food and stuff like that. She does some things you’re going to like with vegetables.”

More information on Brooks’ upcoming shows, including cities and venues, will be posted on his official website as available.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Tim Mosenfelder