Garth Brooks says those close to him are making bets on how far he'll get into his 2018 CMA Awards performance before he breaks down in tears. He tells Taste of Country that viewers at home will be crying, too.

They'll all be crying happy tears, Brooks hopes. The song — only identified as #STM right now — is a love song to his wife, Trisha Yearwood. In fact, he says it's the love song he could never come up with, but "two guys who are slobs" did it right. When he first heard the demo?

"You just sit and kind of stare," Brooks says. "You just kind of stare at the laptop and just go, 'Did I hear really what I just heard?' And then you play it again and you just stare."

"I think this is a song every relationship can understand," he adds.

Yearwood will be center-stage for a performance of a song she's never heard. The CMA Awards winners might be the only secret kept wrapped tighter than this new song, which Brooks says he'll perform with just a guitar.

Originally the CMAs turned down the reigning Entertainer of the Year's request to play this mysterious new song, but an agreement was reached and Brooks will sing it after all. It's going to be a very intimate performance for a man who is used to playing stadiums and arenas. In 2019 Brooks will begin a stadium tour of NFL and college football stadiums that started with a show at Notre Dame last month.

Remember: the 2018 CMA Awards are best watched on ABC with ToC on your phone. Follow us throughout the night for updates, breaking news and conversation.

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood's Love Is Goals, Clearly:

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