Cindy Watts, and Dave Paulson

The Tennessean

Garth Brooks will play a free concert in Nashville this month as the country music veteran celebrates a historic career resurgence after 15 years in retirement.

Brooks announced the Oct. 24 performance Monday at Tennessee's state Capitol in Nashville, alongside Gov. Bill Haslam. The performance at Ascend Amphitheater, which will be significantly scaled down from his tour show, is part of a state-sponsored celebration to recognize Brooks’ recent accomplishment of becoming the first artist to see seven of his albums sell more than 10 million albums. Brooks has sold 138 million albums in his career.

The show is in conjunction with Tennessee Tourism’s “The Soundtrack of America," and fans must follow "Tennessee" on Snapchat to find out how to get tickets.

"It's a pretty big deal when one of our own achieves this record milestone," said Haslam, noting that all seven of Brooks' diamond-certified albums were recorded or produced in Tennessee.

"When people think about what is really made in Tennessee, the thing that comes to mind quickest is music ... we're proud to say that Garth Brooks has been made in Tennessee, and he's definitely part of the soundtrack of America."

As he stood next to the podium at the state Capitol on Monday, Brooks held his hat in his hands and looked at the banner behind him. He pointed to the words "7 Diamond Status."

"I couldn't be more proud to bring this back to the home of country music," he said.

When Brooks announced his retirement from country music in 2000 to move back to Oklahoma and raise his three daughters, he did so as the top-selling solo artist in U.S. history. Brooks, now 54, returned to country music and Nashville in 2014 with an album and world tour.

Two years after his return to Tennessee, he is able to sell concert tickets at nearly twice the pace as he did in the late '90s when he earned two CMA Entertainer of the Year awards.

This year, he’s nominated for the award — one of country music's highest honors — again.

For Brooks, finding success so many years after leaving the spotlight was far from assured.

“If there was ever a doubt of coming back, it was because they wouldn’t let me back in,” Brooks told The Tennessean during an interview at his Music Row studio. “I never thought they would.”

The road back

Brooks launched his three-year Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood in September of 2014 with 11 sold-out concerts (more than 183,000 tickets sold) in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont. Two years later, Brooks has sold nearly 5 million concert tickets in 50 cities, playing multiple sold-out shows in each town and broken venue ticket sales records in 40 of the 50 venues.

Garth Brooks connects live with old hits, new favorites

“This tour has done 125 percent of what the last tour did, which speaks to the fans and embracing it and coming back,” Brooks’ long-time manager Bob Doyle said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen. And we’re all excited with the results.”

Even with full knowledge of the strenuous touring schedule, Brooks did little to prepare mentally or physically. After years of commanding arenas of fans, the singer thought “it would be like riding a bike.”

He was wrong.

Brooks literally fell down in the very first show on the tour.

“I was fighting for every breath I had,” he said of the show. “I came off the stage, I was cut in the hand and the knee. I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ And we had 11 shows. I thought, ‘I’m not going to make it.’ The queen (wife Trisha Yearwood), she said, ‘Just get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day.’ Every day got better and better.”

It took Brooks 14 months to feel confident in his performance abilities and feel like he could be a “gunslinger again.”

“Gunslinger,” he said, holding his hand up for a high five. “I think we might have just found the title for the next record.”

Brooks is planning to release that album (which has yet to officially be named) as part of a 10-disc boxed “Garth Brooks: The Ultimate Collection." It will be available exclusively through Target on Nov. 11. The new album will be released everywhere at a later date.

Embracing technology

With his return, Brooks entered social media for the first time with a presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. He said “it was time.”

Every Monday, he hosts a Facebook Live show on his Facebook page called “Inside Studio G.” He uses the series to give fans an inside look at his recording process, takes cameras into the recording studio and plans to show them the manufacturing process. Fans chat him questions and he occasionally uses the medium to share new music.

In 2014, Brooks announced plans to take his music digital for the first time with GhostTunes. Two years later, Brooks still hasn’t allowed his music to be streamed. However, that’s likely about to change. When asked about rumors that he had signed a large streaming deal, Brooks commented: “I can tell you I cannot deny that, but it’s not my place to say it.”

An announcement about a streaming deal is expected later this month.

Other deals Brooks hatched recently include a collaboration with CBS and SEC football on his song “Pure Adrenaline,” a customized version of which will kick-off CBS Sports’ “SEC Game of the Week” Saturdays during the 2016 season. He also partnered with SiriusXM to create The Garth Channel on the satellite network, which he kicked off with a memorable concert from Ryman Auditorium.

Staying power

“I’ve been in radio since 1971 and … I remember saying, ‘Garth Brooks, I’ve never heard a name like that,’” said vice president of Country Cumulus Media Charlie Cook. “Then you heard the music, and you went, ‘Oh my gosh. That guy really has captured the whole essence of country.’ I think you see that even today, and you certainly saw it at his concert at The Ryman.”

Author and country music historian Robert Oermann agrees.

“What defines him as an artist is his ability to connect with an audience,” Oermann said. “If he’s at the Bluebird Café in front of 50 people, he is riveting. Or if he’s in a stadium, somehow he excels at being the big communicator, too, and it’s not often you find that in the same person. He is one of the great live performers of the genre and nobody that ever saw him would deny that.”

Recap: Garth Brooks brings hits, makes memories at Ryman

When nominations for the 50th annual CMA Awards were announced in September, Brooks – who parted ways with record label Sony Music Nashville over the summer – was included in the Entertainer of the Year category, the event’s top award and one he received in 1991, 1992, 1997 and 1998.

Brooks’ ticket sales and nomination for Entertainer of the Year indicate his early fears about his comeback were unfounded. The singer couldn’t be more proud of the nomination.

He also wants to win.

“It’s the 50th and I think it’s the perfect timing,” Brooks said. “It’s pretty cool. It’d be like Peyton Manning, everybody has Super Bowl rings, some guys have four or five. But that one with 50 on it … all the other Super Bowl rings look alike but that one. At the awards shows, you feel lucky and you feel blessed and what happens, happens. It’s how you handle it I think that defines your character.”

Now, Brooks is enjoying being “an old man in this business.”

"It ain’t what I was fearing," Brooks said. "Everybody treats you so sweet. Everybody knows your name and everybody looks at you and talks to you like you’re somebody."

Back home

On a recent Wednesday, Brooks opened the door to his studio on Music Row wearing a faded Life is Good T-shirt and led the way to a wood-paneled kitchen. Taking bowls of Chinese takeout covered in aluminum foil out of the oven, he made himself a plate of beef and broccoli and grabbed a deck of cards.

“My nephew taught me this card trick,” he said, dealing the cards into multiple piles and then sliding one under a glass on the table. “It’s pretty good.”

Sitting at a weathered, wooden table with his stacks of playing cards, the soft-spoken superstar is believable when he recounts the doubts he had about country music taking him back.

Brooks spent about 14 years in Oklahoma raising his girls, only performing during occasional trips to Las Vegas for a residency at the Wynn Las Vegas and one-offs to various cities to headline fundraisers close to his heart — including nine sold-out shows at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena in 2010 to benefit flood relief efforts.

After two years on the road again, Brooks' doubts about his place in country music are long gone.

“Whenever there is a question with the industry, always go to the people,” he said. “You’ll get your answer.”

Reach Cindy Watts at 615-664-2227 or ciwatts@tennessean.com .

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Garth Brooks is the first artist in any genre to have seven albums be certified diamond by the RIAA, indicating that each album has sold more than 10 million copies.

Brooks’ diamond selling albums are: “The Ultimate Hits Collection,” “Garth Brooks,” “No Fences,” “Ropin’ the Wind,” “The Hits,” “Sevens” and “Double Live.”

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If You Go:

What: Garth Brooks seven diamond sales celebration

When: 7 p.m. Oct. 24

Where: Ascend Amphitheater, 301 1st Ave S in Nashville

Tickets: Admission is free but fans must follow Tennessee on Snapchat to find out how to get tickets