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It’s not uncommon for an autobiography to feature an endorsement on the back cover, but even Garth Brooks admits the person who wrote his might be a little biased: His wife Trisha Yearwood penned the blurb for the first edition of The Anthology.
“I got a love letter from the woman of my dreams,” Garth smiles, “just saying how proud she was of me that I could even write. I thought that was kinda harsh…” he trails off as he laughs.
“We both kind of read it together,” he explains, “because I wrote my part of it, a guy named Warren Zanes wrote everybody else’s interview. And I got to learn so much about what I never knew, about the songwriters … the players, the producers.”
The initial volume of Garth’s story covers the first five years — and the first five albums — of his career.
“This is the ride of a lifetime,” he reflects, “but I think, as much as we didn’t have a clue back then, I think we all knew how lucky we were to just be in the game. But we also got to be here in country music when some huge things were going on that affected how big country music would be….”
In addition to many never-before-seen photos, the book comes with five CDs, covering everything from songwriters’ initial recordings of their compositions to demos and remastered versions of Garth’s biggest hits.
“To hear Trisha Yearwood sing before she ever even got a record deal,” Garth tells ABC Radio, “to hear Tony Arata — the writer of ‘The Dance’ — push that button and for the first time ever… put ‘The Dance’ down on a tape recorder, those moments are cool…”
Garth Brooks: The Anthology|Part 1: The First Five Years is available now.
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