Garth Brooks is gearing up to perform in his home state of Oklahoma in the new year, and he's looking forward to showing his friends there a very different side of himself than they normally get to see.

Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, are set for seven shows at the BOK Center in Tulsa from Jan. 9-17, 2015. The concerts mark the legend's first hometown appearances in 17 years.

"The great thing that I can't wait to see -- there's a lot of friends that we made that never had seen us as a musician or an artist," Brooks tells Eric Cornish of WKDQ in Evansville, Ind. "They know us as somebody totally different. So watching their faces that night I'm on stage, I think I'm gonna get to see a lot of reactions that I wasn't expecting."

He adds, "We did this thing for the Wynn for a television special, and I got a thousand calls from people going, 'Hey, I didn't know you were so funny!' They know a totally different Garth back there, 'cause you just work together with them in the fields or whatever. And now getting to see it as an artist, I'm looking forward to that. It's gonna be like going home again, but on steroids."

Brooks also shared that his favorite among his album covers is his latest, 'Man Against Machine,' because "I got to look like a bada--." He cited 'Alabama Clay,' from his first album, as a song that was never released as a single but should have been, and surprisingly, when asked to name contemporary artists he likes, gave a list of pop artists that included Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Pink, Adele and Beyonce. The superstar also cited Jason Aldean, who he says helped pioneer a new style of country he calls "muscle country."

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