NEWS ARCHIVES

Garth Brooks Touches 'Em All At Mets Press Conference

(4/3/00, 5 p.m. ET) - Country star was honored at New York's Shea Stadium today (April 3) for his participation in pre-season baseball, which benefits the singer's charitable Touch 'Em All Foundation.

Brooks was hailed at a press conference preceding the New York Mets home opening game versus the San Diego Padres, the two teams Brooks has played for. Mets General Manager Steve Phillips presented Brooks with a watch -- a gift for being named the Johnny Murphy rookie of the year in camp.

The quip of the day came after Phillips told the press Garth could play for the Mets that day if he wanted. Padres Manager Bruce Bochy then responded jokingly, "Steve said he would love to have Garth out there in left field. Well, I love Garth, and I would rather see him in the outfield for the Mets today myself.It would help us out a lot." Bochy was poking fun at Brooks's failure to get a base hit in spring training. Brooks then shared his feelings on what he got from spring training: "Well, from a physical point of view, I've got a lot of bruises and I'm just awful sore," he said. "Somebody asked me where I was sore, and it was somewhere from the ears down, I think. That stuff is always fun to do. I'm getting older. I'm 38 this year. The difference with the first spring training with the Padres, I was just trying to stay out of the way. And with the Mets, as soon as you got there, you were getting ground balls with the best of 'em. You were taking ground balls with [Mets shortstop Rey] Ordonez and [Mets second baseman Edgardo] Alfonzo, and you were hitting right behind [Mets catcher Mike] Piazza in the thing. It was a pretty humbling experience, but at the same time you learned a lot."

Brooks also used the press conference as a platform to promote the New Line Cinema movie Frequency , due in theaters on April 28. The song "When You Come Back To Me" was written by Brooks with Jenny Yates , and features backing vocals by . The song will not be a single; it will roll over the ending credits of the film. "When they told me no soundtrack, no single, I sat there with my jaw open. I say, 'There's no way somebody would do music solely for film. They haven't done it that way in years, because everything is about commercial, and everything's about making money. These guys are interested in making a statement of class."

Brooks said the song is his first new music in four years and he added that it may be a while for the next album. "As far as anything else musically, I'm sure that everyone in here that has anything to do with music is aware of the Time Warner/EMI merger, so now we sit dormant," Brooks said. "So now we sit dormant to see who I'm working for, and just to see what's going to happen, and so summer and Christmas are out for us now. And we're just going to work on my music, and more importantly, work on my relationship with my wife because it needs it more than anything. So I'm just going to sit on the sidelines and watch for a while."

Check out Garth's video for his new song "When You Come Back To Me Again" on GAC or CMT: The song is from the movie Frequency. There are no plans to release the song, not even on the soundtrack for the movie.

more on this great song...

``When You Come Back To Me Again''

June 16th--The song Brooks recorded for the New Line Cinema thriller ``Frequency'' is currently at No. 25 in Billboard and No. 21 in R&R after seven weeks on the chart, and it continues its upward momentum. The success of the song is truly amazing because it was not serviced or promoted as a single, it is not commercially available anywhere, and there are no plans to make it available commercially. Initial airplay resulted from stations pulling the audio track from the video when it appeared on CMT and Great American Country. Capitol's promotion department ultimately made broadcast quality copies available to stations on a request basis, and the song is showing significant airplay growth in major cities including New York, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia.

``This is the best-performing Garth Brooks record in the last five years. Whenever you talk about Garth Brooks, you're talking about excellence, and this song is the epitome of excellence. It's an absolutely beautiful piece of music. The research on the song has been spectacular, and we're getting great phones.''

Gregg Swedberg, Program Director - KEEY-FM/Minneapolis

``It only took one listen to `When You Come Back to Me Again' for the Wolf to hear the moving lyrical power and recognize the smash hit potential of this new Garth cut. For Texans here in Dallas-Ft. Worth, it is touching many hearts with its message of spiritual strength from beyond. I wasn't surprised to find out that Garth himself co-wrote the song. Garth, like no one else, has always had the ability to indirectly open the mind's eye to the heavens through song. It's been a quick reaction record at the Wolf with tons of request inquiries via phone and e-mail.''

Cody Alan, Music Director - 99.5 The Wolf/Dallas

There have been other instances in music history when a song was not initially made available to radio or worked as a single, yet the song somehow made its way to radio airwaves and occasionally charted. In the country genre, there are few examples of this phenomenon, and none of the songs reached the top 50.

In the pop realm, comparisons can be made between ``When You Come Back To Me Again'' and Madonna's ``Into The Groove,'' as well as Lauryn Hill's cover of ``Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You.''

``Into The Groove'' was featured in the 1985 movie ``Desperately Seeking Susan'' but was not included in the soundtrack or promoted as a single. Radio stations pulled audio from the video and the song received heavy airplay, but because the BDS airplay monitoring system had not yet been developed, and because the song was not being promoted, it did not chart.

``Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You,'' featured in the 1997 movie ``Conspiracy Theory,'' was not included on the soundtrack. Due to early play on R&B stations, Hill eventually released the song on her debut solo CD. It peaked at No. 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart in June 1998, 2 months before the CD was released. The video for ``When You Come Back To Me Again,'' which features scenes from the movie, is currently in Hot Shot rotation on CMT and #3 on Great American Country's Top 15.

It was a Garth Sweep at the American Music Awards...

LOS ANGELES -  JAN 17, 1999- Garth Brooks, the biggest-selling act in country music history, scored 3 awards at the American Music Awards.

Brooks took home the awards for favorite country album, ("Double Live"), and favorite male country artist. Garth was also presented with the artist of the decade award for the 1990's.

Garth's now ex-wife Sandy took out a half page ad in USA Today congratulating him on his '99 AMA success!

BackYard Contest

The Backyard Concert Contest Garth offered when his "Double Live" album was released finally happened in December. A couple from Daphne, AL won the contest. Garth put on a private concert for them and a couple thousand of their closest friends in a small theater in Mobile, AL. The couple invited a group of foster children to come see the show as well as members of their church. The concert included Garth and two of his other band members. Requests were taken from the audience.