Garth Brooks Co-Hosts 5/6-7

This week, Garth Brooks co-hosts the Countdown. He will co-host the 58th annual ACM Awards with Dolly Parton on Thursday May 11th. It will be the first time he’s co-hosted an awards show. One week later, he begins his Las Vegas residency. It continues through 2024. Plus, we get an update on his first and only tattoo.

Garth explained to Lon why this is the first time he’s co-hosted an awards show: “It’s not what I do. But my partner is Amazon, they reached out and asked.  I said there’s no way I can do it. They said Dolly’s hosting, and I said, ‘I’m in!.’  Any chance to stand next to that woman is awesome.”

Lon asked Garth what we can expect from him & Dolly: “My thing is we have Dolly Parton, She represents class, talent, timelessness. Let’s follow those leads. Maybe less on the talk, less yak-yak jokes, and more about the artists. Wait til you see her entrance. It’s fabulous. She’s also got her big surprise during the show too.”

What can you say about her entrance? “She won’t be alone. I’ll put it that way.  I don’t even know if it’s someone.  We had to take a joke out.  She said, ‘People talk about the two biggest stars in country music. Before this, *I* was the two biggest stars in country music!”

Lon asked if Garth had anything to do with the show being free with no subscription: “It goes back to my Central Park concert.  I told HBO the only reason I’d do it was if they opened it up to everyone. To me it makes sense.  They’ll increase eyeballs, and I hope it pays off for them.

One week after the ACMs, Garth will begin a two-year residency in Las Vegas: “This theater is twice as big. It’s a one-man show that I enjoy doing, but the band will be there for when we need the muscle. I love music, and I want to do other people’s music.  Every night will be different, because the crowd leads.  You get to experiment.  Hopefully the people will feel it’s just for them.”

Garth told Lon he came to do the countdown after spending the morning in his studio working on new music: “We will have two deliveries. One will be early fall, and one will be late fall.  So for people who wants to hear Garth stuff.  We’ll have more than you can possibly want, because we haven’t done anything in a while.”

One last thing: Garth will have a big announcement next week.  He gave Lon a little hint: “It’s all about promoting country music.  The goal is to make the pie bigger. As country music grows, we all grow. That is what the announcement will be. Hopefully a way to promote country music all around the world.  The greatest format has to go global.”

Garth also has great stories this week about Jordan Davis, Joe Nichols, Cole Swindell, Keith Urban, and Alan Jackson.

NEXT WEEK: Tyler Hubbard

Tags: featured

Category: CO-HOST