The Heroes of Garth Brooks

By Tom Roland

Garth Brooks photo by Mark Tucker, courtesy of Pearl Records.

November 28, 2007 — There's nothing new under the sun. Most art—and that includes music—is simply a product of the artist taking the things they like from other artists and putting it back out in his or her own way. For Garth Brooks, that’s meant synthesizing music from country artists and arena-rock acts and creating a bigger-than-life experience with his form of heartland twang. He's got a fairly decent list of heroes.

1) Queen
Garth is probably the only country artist who's openly discussed his affinity for the English band that brought us "Bohemian Rhapsody." He attended one of their concerts in Oklahoma City, and he found himself standing on a chair during one of Brian May’s guitar solos, aching to some day occupy the stage himself. Mission accomplished.

2) George Jones
Supposedly, one of the first major moments for Garth during his youth came when he heard the Possum sing a James Taylor song. That would, of course, be "Bartender’s Blues," on which Taylor provided backing vocals. Lucky for Garth, he actually joined Jones on a single, "Beer Run," and they shared a Grammy nomination with that performance.

3) James Taylor
Who doesn't like Sweet Baby James? It's a fairly safe assumption that the sensitive singer-songwriter part of Garth's act is directly linked to his love of J.T.

4) George Strait
Garth has often said that hearing George's "Unwound" on the radio, with those raw fiddles and thumping bassline, convinced him that he should be a country artist.

5) Kiss
When Garth painted his face red, white and blue with a big ol' star on it for the cover of his album The Hits, he looked like a safe version of Paul Stanley. He's such a big fan of Kiss that he was the only country artist to contribute to a tribute album, Kiss My Ass, turning in a version of "Hard Luck Woman." He also sang with them on The Tonight Show, and when he performed in Los Angeles in the early '90s, both Stanley and Gene Simmons were in the crowd.

6) Billy Joel
Garth isn't a piano man, but his interest in Joel certainly shows his good taste. Garth gave one of his most chilling performances in his version of Billy’s "Shameless," and Joel also showed up in Garth's legendary Central Park concert for a duet version of "You May Be Right."

7) Cal Smith
Cal is best-known for a hardcore country classic, "Country Bumpkin," that Garth has publicly hailed as his favorite country song of all-time.