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Garth Brooks music biography continued...

mainstream audiences. Garth Troyal Brooks was born on Feb. 7, 1962, in Tulsa, Okla., and raised in Yukon, Okla., just outside of Oklahoma City. He attended Oklahoma State as a college student, during which time he became a popular regional performer as a member of a country band, but also as a guitar-picking soloist. Brooks moved to Nashville, Tennessee and released his first album with Columbia Records in 1989. His breakthrough didn't come until the following year with his sophomore effort, No Fences, and the smash hit single, "Friends in Low Places." No Fences became Brooks' first #1 album and went onto sell more than 16 million copies. Ropin' the Wind, Brooks' third album, released in September 1991, was the first ever to debut at No. 1 on both the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and the Billboard Country Album Chart. The Chase (1992) and In Pieces (1993) were the second and third albums to do so. Sevens (1997) and Double Live (1998) also accomplished this feat.
More than just a country singer, Brooks became a veritable pop culture icon. He was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone, Forbes, Time, Entertainment Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post and became a guest on every hit television show ranging from Oprah Winfrey to Saturday Night Live. He has also performed on eight specials for NBC. Over the course of his career, Brooks has received virtually every honor the recording industry can give an artist. In addition to his Grammys, American Music Awards, Country Music Association awards, Academy of Country Music awards and People's Choice trophies, he was named artist of the '90s at the 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and artist of the decade by both the American Music Awards in 2000 and the Academy of Country Music in 1999. In 2000 Brooks announced that he was retiring to focus on parenting and screenwriting, but he came back in 2007 to perform a series of concerts that were simulcast around the world. As a performer, Brooks has friends all around the globe, in low places and high places as well.