I don’t do much pop culture here, mostly because politics already provides enough circus animals and flaming hoops to keep a man busy.
But every now and then, a story comes along that hits a different nerve. This one did.
Garth Brooks may be looking at selling his music catalog in a deal reportedly worth as much as $2 billion. The possible sale would include both songwriting and recording rights, and if it happens, it would be one of the biggest music catalog deals ever tied to a single artist.
Now, I know. That is a lot of zeroes. That is not “buy the good coffee” money. That is “your great-grandchildren can be weird in private” money.
I don’t believe I have done a pop culture story on this website in a couple of years. I don’t think I have done one at all since launching The Scott Sheet. But you can take the boy out of country radio, and apparently you cannot take country radio out of the boy.
Garth released his first album in 1989. I got into country radio in 1990. Let’s just say one of those career launches went a little better than the other.
I met him numerous times over the years, and he was always warm, genuine, and generous with his time. Not fake generous. Not “pose for the picture and get me out of here” generous. He was good to the fans I brought to meet him, and that matters. You learn a lot about people when the cameras are down and they do not have to be decent.
When streaming music took off, I was surprised by Garth’s decision to hold back from the major platforms. Honestly, I admired it. He could have made a dump truck full of money by just surrendering the whole thing to the digital machine, but he didn’t. He preferred albums over chopped-up song purchases and kept his music off places like Spotify and Apple Music before eventually signing an exclusive streaming deal with Amazon Music in 2016.
That was not the easy move. It was a Garth move.
Here is a guy with an advertising degree from OSU, raw talent, ridiculous drive, and the kind of connection with fans that cannot be manufactured in a boardroom by people wearing scarves indoors. He helped change the face of country music. The article notes he has more than 200 million certified album units in the United States, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012, and is the only artist with 10 diamond-certified albums.
That is not luck. That is work. That is timing. That is talent. That is America.
And that is why I wanted to include this story. Not because it is political. It isn’t. Praise God, not everything has to be shoved through the Washington meat grinder.
This is a reminder that the American dream still exists. It may be harder to find. It may be buried under bureaucracy, inflation, cultural rot, bad leadership, and a thousand professional pessimists who make a living telling everyone the country is finished. But it is still there.
Garth Brooks embodies it. He built something. He protected it. He served his fans. He gave back. His philanthropic work shows a man with a big heart, not just a big bank account. And now, if this sale happens, the body of his work could leave a legacy worth billions for his family and, no doubt, the community around him.
Not bad for a kid from Oklahoma who figured out how to make stadiums feel like front porches.
We should all strive to have such friends in low places.
Source: 9News
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