Why Garth Brooks Bows to Trisha Yearwood
Fans who have seen Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood together -- live in concert or elsewhere -- have likely noticed a sweet tradition between the two country artists. The pair will often bow to each other during performances.
"When we first started singing together, she told me I had to. After every song, I had to bow to her," Brooks explained during his Monday night (March 29) Inside Studio G Facebook livestream. Naturally, his joke elicited some laughter from both himself and his tech crew, especially as he joked, "Then she probably started feeling guilty I was bowing, so she'd bow back."
In reality, the tradition has much sweeter roots: It's out of respect "of her gift, of her talent, and the fact that she's done it on her own, as a woman in this business," Brooks says.
"Long before I ever thought it was possible to date the woman, much less marry her, I'm the biggest fan of Trisha Yearwood's voice you can imagine," he gushes. Indeed, extremely early in their careers -- before Brooks found fame with his 1989 debut album and Yearwood did so with her first record in 1991 -- the two recorded a demo together, and Brooks promised Yearwood that if he was successful, she could open for him.
"One of the greatest crimes in country music history right now: Trisha Yearwood is not in the Country Music Hall of Fame yet. That is a crime because I cannot tell you how many people have moved to this town because this woman's voice drove them here," Brooks says. "This is the greatest singer we have in country music, arguably, and so I'm a huge, huge fan."
Not only did Brooks keep that promise for Yearwood to open for him, they also recorded a duet together, "In Another's Eyes," for his 1997 studio album Sevens. His 1998 Double Live record also features "Wild as the Wind," a second duet with Yearwood.
Brooks and Yearwood were both previously married, but after he divorced his wife Sandy in 2001 and she divorced Mavericks member Robert Reynolds (her second husband) in 1999, the two began dating. They wed on Dec. 13, 2005.
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