Garth Brooks: The man who changed country music

If you're in love with country music today, with all of the Blakes, Jasons, Mirandas and random bros, then you should thank Garth Brooks.

Brooks tore apart country music - and, more importantly, music in general - during a juggernaut run in the 1990s that altered an industry. He's now proving that people have long memories with a post-retirement comeback tour so popular that he's been doing multiple shows at major arenas, including two each Friday and Saturday nights at the KFC Yum! Center.

The last time that happened? On Brooks' 1998 tour, which sold out four nights at Freedom Hall.

"He was a game-changer in the '90s and he's a game-changer now," said Peter Cooper, museum editor for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. "It's unprecedented the way he was able to go out at the very top of his game, like Sandy Koufax in baseball, and then to come back and remain not just a viable artist but a blockbuster attraction."

Country music's widespread popularity is now familiar enough to seem like old news, but it really isn't in the big picture. When Brooks released "Ropin' the Wind" in 1991, it became the first country album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 charts, then the unchallenged domain of everything not country.

Over the next decade, Brooks repeated the feat seven more times but, more importantly, he was joined by Tim McGraw, Billy Ray Cyrus, Faith Hill, George Strait, LeAnn Rimes and The Dixie Chicks. These days, it's expected that superstars such as Eric Church and Jason Aldean will debut in the top spot.

Brooks' ascendance was a turning point in country music history and, to this day, he owns six of country music's all-time best-selling albums with more than 160 million sold. When he retired in 2001 to spend time with his family, he was still a dominant force.

"Garth Brooks was the most important artist I've ever seen," said retired Louisville radio legend Coyote Calhoun, who was on the board of directors for the Country Music Association when Brooks arrived.

Calhoun recalled a CMA meeting where RCA Records' Joe Galante, one of the industry's most powerful executives, firmly explained that the game had changed. Brooks was reaching a wider, younger demographic while selling more records than anyone not named Michael Jackson, and it was a case of adapt or die.

"When they saw what a frenzy the fans were in they knew then that they had something they could build on," Calhoun said, "and that went on to shape the format into one of the leaders in the music industry."

"Garth Brooks put country music into more ears than had ever heard it before," Cooper said. "He was the gateway drug into this music for many, many people. And the radio stations couldn't play only Garth for 24 hours a day, so he helped put the music of people like Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn into the public consciousness."

While Brooks appealed to non-country fans, Cooper points out that his music was decidedly rooted in country, to a degree where his songs would seem out of place on modern country radio. But both Cooper and Calhoun agree that Brooks bridged the genre gap thanks to an all-powerful charisma, which was especially evident in concert.

He wasn't the first country act to headline arenas, but he was the first to approach the shows as if he were an arena rock act.

"What he did introduce, particularly on stage, was a rock and roll intensity," Cooper said. "Musically, he always pointed people to the Georges, George Strait and George Jones, but he took his onstage cues from arena rock acts that he'd seen in the '70s, like Aerosmith. So here was a guy singing a country song about a rodeo but he was running around on stage like Mick Jagger wearing a cowboy hat."

Brian Abrams, 38, was a rock 'n' roll kid in the 1990s but his mom was a Brooks fan. Like many others, he was roped in by Brooks.

"My genre of music isn't country but I've always liked Garth thanks to my mom," said Abrams, of Clarksville, Ind. "She liked rock 'n' roll, but she had also had Garth playing and when I heard him I liked him better than any other in that particular genre."

This weekend will be a nostalgia fest for Abrams, who has tickets for Friday night. "This is my first time," he said, "so I can't wait to see him."

Reporter Jeffrey Lee Puckett can be reached at (502) 582-4160 and jpuckett@courier-journal.com.

Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood

WHEN: 7 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday 

WHERE: KFC Yum! Center

COST: $64.73, available at the venue and Ticketmaster