The Garth Brooks World Tour (1996–1998)

For the 1993–94 concert tour, see The Garth Brooks World Tour (1993–94).

The Garth Brooks World Tour was a concert tour by American country music artist Garth Brooks. Launching in support of Brooks' albums, Fresh Horses (1995), and later Sevens (1997), the tour followed Brooks' 1993–94 tour and also featured appearances by Trisha Yearwood. The tour ran from March 12, 1996, to November 22, 1998, for a total of 344 concerts. Even though this was Brooks' final concert tour before his retirement in 2001, it drew record-breaking crowds in North America, two places in Ireland, and one place in South America, becoming the third-most attended concert tour of all time, as well as one of the decade's highest-grossing concert tours.

The Garth Brooks World Tour

Tour by Garth Brooks
Location	Europe, North America, South America
Associated album	Fresh Horses, Sevens
Start date	March 12, 1996
End date	November 22, 1998
Legs	5
No. of shows	344
Box office	US$105,000,000
Garth Brooks concert chronology

Background and content

Brooks and band performs in 1998 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.

After his first successful world tour, Brooks embarked on his second, covering many cities at random throughout the United States and Canada, with appearances in Ireland and Brazil. Initially launching to support Brooks' 1995 album, Fresh Horses, it also began to feature songs from Sevens, released in 1997. The concerts' outline evolved as the set lists changed throughout the tour. Each show began with smoke-filled entrance by Brooks, appearing via hydraulic lift through a piano as the opening notes of "The Old Stuff" were played.^[1] Wearing a wireless microphone headset, Brooks proceeded to dance about the stage, performing a series of old and new songs. The high energy and pyrotechnics garnered comparison to hard rock performances by bands including Kiss, while still achieving a country atmosphere.^[1] Following the release of Brooks' album, Sevens, Trisha Yearwood began making periodic appearances to perform duets, such as "In Another's Eyes".

Ticket sales and revenue

Brooks' 1996–98 world tour continued the tradition established by his first tour, selling each ticket for the same price ($20), regardless of location in the venue.^[2] Because of this, demand was extremely high breaking many records worldwide, including arena ticket sales and attendance records. Concerts began selling out in minutes, resulting in such high demand that multiple shows were added for many cities.^[1] Many of these ticket sales and attendance records were broken by Brooks once again on his 2014 tour.

Despite each ticket costing well below the average ticket prices at the time, the tour managed to gross nearly $105 million worldwide, and is listed among the highest-grossing concert tours in the 1990s.^[2] Its total attendance, approximately 5.5 million, ranks fourth all-time (behind U2, Pink Floyd, and The Rolling Stones).

Recordings

Audio

Portions of various concerts from the tour were recorded and released as a live album to coincide with the tour's conclusion. The two-disc release, called Double Live, went on to become the best-selling live album of all time, certified 21× platinum by the RIAA, and is the seventh-most shipped album in United States music history.^[3]

Video

Further information: Garth: Live from Central Park

The tour's concerts in New York City's Central Park and Dublin's Croke Park were filmed for later broadcasting. Garth: Live from Central Park was a free concert attended by 980,000 fans, the most-attended concert in the park's history. Paying homage to Woodstock, the concert was dubbed "Garthstock", featuring appearances by Billy Joel and Don McLean.^[4] It was broadcast on HBO, receiving nearly 15 million live viewers, the most of any concert special that year, and it received six Emmy Award nominations.^[4] Garth Brooks: Ireland and Back, footage of the concert of May 16, 1997, was filmed and later broadcast on NBC with a live ending featuring Brooks performing songs from the newly released Sevens from Burbank, California, receiving 15.7 million viewers.^[5] Both specials were included in Brooks' The Entertainer DVD collection, released in 2006, with the Dublin concert being renamed “Garth Brooks: Live in Ireland”. While the live ending was not a part of the main show, a couple songs from the segment were put in the Special Features.

Set list

This set list is representative of the performance of May 20, 1998 in Louisville, Kentucky. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the series.^[6]

1. "The Old Stuff"
2. "Standing Outside the Fire"
3. "The Beaches of Cheyenne"
4. "Two Pina Coladas"
5. "Papa Loved Mama"
6. "We Shall Be Free"
7. "That Summer"
8. "Callin' Baton Rouge"
9. "Unanswered Prayers"
10. "The River"
11. "The Thunder Rolls"
12. "American Honky-Tonk Bar Association"
13. "In Another's Eyes" (duet with Trisha Yearwood)
14. "Walkaway Joe" (performed by Trisha Yearwood)
15. "The Fever"
16. "Friends in Low Places"
17. "The Dance"

Encores

18. "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)"
19. "Longneck Bottle"
20. "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House"
21. "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)"
22. "American Pie" (Don McLean cover)

Tour dates

List of concerts, showing date, number of shows, city, country, and venue

Date Number of shows	City	Country	Venue	Tickets Sold / Available	Revenue
Leg 1
March 12, 1996	Atlanta	United States	Omni Coliseum	83,293 / 83,293	$1,556,138
March 13, 1996
March 14, 1996
March 15, 1996
March 16, 1996
March 20, 1996	Cleveland		Gund Arena	82,447 / 82,447	$1,572,667
March 21, 1996
March 22, 1996
March 23, 1996
March 27, 1996	Indianapolis		Market Square Arena	69,653 / 69,653	$1,165,571
March 28, 1996
March 29, 1996
March 30, 1996
April 2, 1996	Landover		USAir Arena	90,317 / 90,317	$1,762,294
April 3, 1996
April 4, 1996
April 5, 1996
April 6, 1996
April 9, 1996	East Lansing		Breslin Center	28,850 / 28,850	$481,780
April 10, 1996
April 11, 1996	Milwaukee		Bradley Center	56,726 / 56,726	$998,594
April 12, 1996
April 13, 1996
April 18, 1996	Miami		Miami Arena	—	—
April 19, 1996
April 20, 1996
April 26, 1996	Manhattan		Bramlage Coliseum	26,419 / 26,419	$474,246
April 27, 1996
May 2, 1996	Kansas City		Kemper Arena	66,400 / 66,400	$1,228,400
May 3, 1996
May 4, 1996
May 5, 1996
May 8, 1996	Auburn Hills		The Palace of Auburn Hills	104,625 / 104,625	$1,859,850
May 9, 1996
May 10, 1996
May 11, 1996
May 12, 1996
May 16, 1996	Birmingham		BJCC Coliseum	54,980 / 54,980	$978,656
May 17, 1996
May 18, 1996
May 30, 1996	Las Cruces		Pan American Center	—	—
May 31, 1996
June 2, 1996	Tucson		McKale Center	26,860 / 26,860	$483,480
June 3, 1996
June 6, 1996	Phoenix		America West Arena	53,248 / 53,248	$958,464
June 7, 1996
June 8, 1996
June 13, 1996	San Diego		San Diego Sports Arena	41,336 / 41,336	$805,467
June 14, 1996
June 15, 1996
June 19, 1996	Inglewood		Great Western Forum	52,686 / 52,686	$934,074
June 20, 1996
June 21, 1996
June 22, 1996	Anaheim		Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim	55,671 / 55,671	$987,228
June 23, 1996
June 24, 1996
June 26, 1996	Albuquerque		Tingley Coliseum	—	—
June 27, 1996
June 28, 1996
July 18, 1996	Denver		McNichols Sports Arena	—	—
July 19, 1996
July 20, 1996
July 25, 1996	Portland, OR		Rose Garden Arena	—	—
July 26, 1996
July 27, 1996
August 1, 1996	Vancouver	Canada	General Motors Place	53,339 / 53,339	$912,143
August 2, 1996
August 3, 1996
August 7, 1996	Calgary		Canadian Airlines Saddledome	53,076 / 53,076	$909,101
August 8, 1996
August 9, 1996
August 10, 1996	Edmonton		Edmonton Coliseum	50,871 / 50,871	$872,924
August 11, 1996
August 12, 1996
August 14, 1996	Saskatoon		Saskatchewan Place	28,144 / 28,144	$514,780
August 15, 1996
August 17, 1996	Winnipeg		Winnipeg Arena	46,280 / 46,280	$935,375
August 18, 1996
August 19, 1996
August 27, 1996	Portland, ME	United States	Cumberland County Civic Center	40,684 / 40,684	$720,108
August 28, 1996
August 29, 1996
August 30, 1996
August 31, 1996
September 2, 1996	Ottawa	Canada	Corel Centre	36,892 / 36,892	$740,802
September 3, 1996
September 5, 1996	Hamilton		Copps Coliseum	—	—
September 6, 1996	Toronto		SkyDome	28,617 / 28,617	$800,510
September 7, 1996	Montreal		Molson Centre	—	—
September 9, 1996	Saint John		Harbour Station	—	—
September 10, 1996
September 11, 1996
September 12, 1996	Halifax		Halifax Metro Centre	39,592 / 39,592	$800,510
September 13, 1996
September 14, 1996
September 15, 1996
October 3, 1996	Carbondale	United States	SIU Arena	28,335 / 28,335	$466,344
October 4, 1996
October 5, 1996
October 10, 1996	St. Louis		Kiel Center	60,210 / 60,210	$1,069,980
October 11, 1996
October 12, 1996
October 17, 1996	Ames		Hilton Coliseum	43,080 / 43,080	$784,234
October 18, 1996
October 19, 1996
November 1, 1996	Knoxville		Thompson–Boling Arena	50,006 / 50,006	$895,382
November 2, 1996
November 13, 1996	Cincinnati		Riverfront Coliseum	83,856 / 83,856	$1,487,808
November 14, 1996
November 15, 1996
November 16, 1996
November 17, 1996
December 5, 1996	Jackson		Mississippi Coliseum	26,002 / 26,002	$441,125
December 6, 1996
December 7, 1996
December 13, 1996	Biloxi		Mississippi Coast Coliseum	—	—
December 14, 1996
December 15, 1996
Leg 2
January 16, 1997	Shreveport	United States	Hirsch Memorial Coliseum	29,102 / 29,102	$522,755
January 17, 1997
January 18, 1997
January 23, 1997	Hampton		Hampton Coliseum	—	—
January 24, 1997
January 25, 1997
January 30, 1997	North Charleston		North Charleston Coliseum	—	—
January 31, 1997
February 1, 1997
February 13, 1997	Charleston		Charleston Civic Center	49,976 / 49,976	$907,407
February 14, 1997
February 15, 1997
February 16, 1997
February 20, 1997	Richmond		Richmond Coliseum	35,942 / 35,942	$644,132
February 21, 1997
February 22, 1997
February 27, 1997	Jacksonville		Jacksonville Coliseum	56,648 / 56,648	$1,090,474
February 28, 1997
March 1, 1997
March 2, 1997
March 3, 1997
March 4, 1997
March 7, 1997	Champaign		Assembly Hall	49,412 / 49,412	$851,078
March 8, 1997
March 9, 1997
March 28, 1997	Columbia		Carolina Coliseum	—	—
March 29, 1997
April 3, 1997	University Park		Bryce Jordan Center	74,399 / 74,399	$1,339,182
April 4, 1997
April 5, 1997
April 6, 1997
April 7, 1997
April 10, 1997	Albany		Pepsi Arena	47,356 / 47,356	$799,017
April 11, 1997
April 12, 1997
April 17, 1997	Boston		FleetCenter	35,183 / 35,183	$591,719
April 18, 1997
April 19, 1997	Worcester		Worcester's Centrum Centre	56,696 / 56,696	$950,793
April 20, 1997
April 21, 1997
April 22, 1997
April 25, 1997	Syracuse		Carrier Dome	53,526 / 53,526	$1,004,644
April 26, 1997
May 16, 1997[a]	Dublin	Ireland	Croke Park	—	—
May 17, 1997
May 18, 1997
Leg 3
July 3, 1997	Oklahoma City	United States	Myriad Convention Center	43,388 / 43,388	$835,458
July 4, 1997
July 5, 1997
July 11, 1997	Amarillo		Potter County Memorial Stadium	—	—
July 12, 1997
July 17, 1997	Tulsa		Drillers Stadium	80,782 / 80,782	$1,557,173
July 18, 1997
July 19, 1997
July 20, 1997
July 21, 1997
July 26, 1997	Columbus		Cooper Stadium	95,924 / 95,924	$1,804,601
July 27, 1997
July 28, 1997
July 29, 1997
July 30, 1997
August 14, 1997	Sacramento		ARCO Arena	83,277 / 83,277	$1,478,160
August 15, 1997
August 16, 1997
August 17, 1997
August 18, 1997
August 21, 1997	Fresno		Selland Arena	50,702 / 50,702	$900,018
August 22, 1997
August 23, 1997
August 24, 1997
August 25, 1997
August 29, 1997	San Jose		San Jose Arena	53,509 / 53,509	$945,018
August 30, 1997
August 31, 1997
September 4, 1997	Reno		Lawlor Events Center	—	—
September 5, 1997
September 24, 1997	Lincoln		Bob Devaney Sports Center	—	—
September 25, 1997
September 26, 1997
September 27, 1997
September 28, 1997
October 3, 1997	Rapid City		Rushmore Plaza Civic Center	—	—
October 4, 1997
October 13, 1997	Pittsburgh		Civic Arena	100,715 / 100,715	$1,925,462
October 14, 1997
October 15, 1997
October 16, 1997
October 17, 1997
October 18, 1997
October 21, 1997	Rosemont		Rosemont Horizon	107,525 / 107,525	$1,913,400
October 22, 1997
October 23, 1997
October 24, 1997
October 25, 1997
October 26, 1997
October 29, 1997	Sioux Falls		Sioux Falls Arena	—	—
October 30, 1997
October 31, 1997
November 1, 1997
November 2, 1997
November 6, 1997	Bismarck		Bismarck Civic Center	—	—
November 7, 1997
November 8, 1997
November 9, 1997
November 12, 1997	Valley Center		Kansas Coliseum	—	—
November 13, 1997
November 14, 1997
November 15, 1997
November 16, 1997
December 18, 1997	Rosemont		Rosemont Horizon	35,480 / 35,480	$638,640
December 19, 1997
Leg 4
February 13, 1998	Dallas	United States	Reunion Arena	50,213 / 52,000	$1,059,494
February 14, 1998
February 15, 1998
February 20, 1998	Fort Worth		Fort Worth Convention Center	37,015 / 37,015	$781,015
February 21, 1998
February 22, 1998
March 5, 1998	Memphis		The Pyramid Arena	60,885 / 60,885	$1,290,129
March 6, 1998
March 7, 1998
March 20, 1998	Charlotte		Charlotte Coliseum	48,691 / 48,691	$960,180
March 21, 1998
March 25, 1998	Winston-Salem		LJVM Coliseum	57,512 / 57,512	$1,127,040
March 26, 1998
March 27, 1998
March 28, 1998
April 3, 1998	Chapel Hill		Dean Smith Center	40,800 / 40,800	$802,040
April 4, 1998
April 7, 1998	Houston		Compaq Center	81,039 / 81,039	$1,673,455
April 8, 1998
April 9, 1998
April 10, 1998
April 11, 1998
April 14, 1998	San Antonio		Alamodome	120,653 / 120,653	$2,594,040
April 15, 1998
April 16, 1998
April 17, 1998
April 18, 1998 2 shows
April 23, 1998	Baton Rouge		LSU Assembly Center	—	—
April 24, 1998
April 25, 1998
April 30, 1998	Evansville		Roberts Municipal Stadium	46,502 / 46,502	$894,875
May 1, 1998
May 2, 1998
May 3, 1998
May 8, 1998	Nashville		Nashville Arena	—	—
May 9, 1998
May 10, 1998
May 15, 1998	Lexington		Rupp Arena	68,010 / 68,010	$1,380,368
May 16, 1998
May 17, 1998
May 20, 1998	Louisville		Freedom Hall	—	—
May 21, 1998
May 22, 1998
May 23, 1998
Leg 5
July 2, 1998	Billings	United States	MetraPark Arena	—	—
July 3, 1998
July 4, 1998
July 5, 1998
July 9, 1998	Salt Lake City		Delta Center	—	—
July 10, 1998
July 11, 1998
July 12, 1998
July 15, 1998	Seattle		KeyArena	—	—
July 16, 1998
July 17, 1998
July 18, 1998
July 19, 1998
July 20, 1998
July 23, 1998	Spokane		Spokane Arena	—	—
July 24, 1998
July 25, 1998
July 26, 1998
July 27, 1998
August 7, 1998	Casper		Casper Events Center	—	—
August 8, 1998
August 9, 1998
August 13, 1998	Las Vegas		Thomas & Mack Center	—	—
August 14, 1998
August 15, 1998
August 16, 1998
September 8, 1998	Philadelphia		First Union Center	115,212 / 115,212	$2,509,672
September 9, 1998
September 10, 1998
September 11, 1998
September 12, 1998
September 13, 1998
September 18, 1998	Fargo		Fargodome	—	—
September 19, 1998
September 20, 1998
September 23, 1998	Buffalo		Marine Midland Arena	111,480 / 111,480	$2,156,544
September 24, 1998
September 25, 1998
September 26, 1998
September 27, 1998
September 28, 1998
October 1, 1998	Quebec City	Canada	Colisée de Québec	—	—
October 2, 1998	Montreal		Centre Molson	34,110 / 34,110	$731,660
October 3, 1998
October 6, 1998	Minneapolis	United States	Target Center	163,791 / 163,791	$3,500,609
October 7, 1998
October 8, 1998
October 9, 1998
October 10, 1998
October 11, 1998
October 12, 1998
October 13, 1998
October 14, 1998
October 21, 1998	Orlando		Orlando Arena	85,390 / 85,390	$1,698,300
October 22, 1998
October 23, 1998
October 24, 1998
October 25, 1998
October 28, 1998	Tampa		Ice Palace	77,636 / 77,636	$1,615,488
October 29, 1998
October 30, 1998
October 31, 1998
November 11, 1998	Belfast	Northern Ireland	King's Hall	—	—
November 12, 1998
November 13, 1998
November 14, 1998
November 15, 1998
November 19, 1998	College Station	United States	Reed Arena	37,831 / 37,831	$757,087
November 21, 1998
November 22, 1998

Special concerts

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, and venue

Date Number of shows	City	Country	Venue
July 22, 1996	Cheyenne	United States	Cheyenne Frontier Days
August 7, 1997[b]	New York City		Central Park
August 22, 1998	Barretos	Brazil	Festa do Peão de Boiadeiro

Personnel

• Garth Brooks – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar on "Callin' Baton Rouge"
• Stephanie Davis – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• David Gant – piano, synthesizers
• James Garver – electric guitar, electric banjo on "Callin' Baton Rouge", backing vocals
• Mark Greenwood – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Jimmy Mattingly – fiddle, acoustic guitar
• Steve McClure – pedal steel guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar on "Callin' Baton Rouge"
• Debbie Nims – acoustic guitar, mandolin, percussion, backing vocals
• Mike Palmer – drums, percussion

See also

• List of highest-grossing concert tours
• List of most-attended concert tours
• List of Garth Brooks concert tours

Notes

1. This concert was taped and later broadcast on NBC, receiving 15.7 million live viewers. It was included in Brooks' 2006 DVD compilation, The Entertainer.
2. This concert was free of charge, and it remains the largest concert ever held at the park. It was taped, broadcast on HBO, and included in Brooks' 2006 DVD compilation, The Entertainer.

References

1. Ruggieri, Melissa (April 19, 1996). "Brooks Wows 16,000 Fans At Miami Arena". Sun-Sentinel. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
2. Waddell, Ray (October 8, 2007). "Brooks Set For Nine-Show Kansas City Run". Billboard. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
3. "RIAA List of Best Selling Albums". Riaa.com. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
4. Sickels, Robert C. (2013). 100 entertainers who changed America : an encyclopedia of pop culture luminaries. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood. p. 83. ISBN 978-1598848304. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
5. "Paradise Announces Billy Joel/Elton John Concert For HBO Garth Brooks Television Special Wins #1 Ratings". PRNewswire. April 8, 1998. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
6. "Garth Brooks Setlist". setlist.fm. Retrieved March 8, 2016.