Garth Brooks Sets Concert Record in Knoxville

Garth Brooks' upcoming concerts in Knoxville, Tenn., will be the largest country music event in the city's history, continuing the country icon's trend of breaking records in many cities on his current World Tour.

In 2003, the singer sold 49,211 tickets to a show on June 7 at Knoxville's Neyland Stadium, setting the previous record for the city's largest country music event. For his upcoming concerts, set for May 28-31 at the Thompson Boling Arena, Brooks has sold more than 54,000 tickets, with sales still happening.

While on his World Tour, Brooks has also broken ticket sales records -- many of which were previously held by him as well -- in Portland, Ore.; Sacramento, Calif.; Chicago; Minneapolis and more.

Brooks is currently playing a string of shows in Omaha, Neb., until May 10. He then heads to Knoxville, before continuing to Tampa, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Houston. See a complete list his of upcoming dates, all of which also include his wife Trisha Yearwood, here.

After his "retirement" to raise his kids, Brooks is finding things a bit different in country music. With so many changes, it could be easy for a seasoned artist to feel a little jaded about the industry, but Brooks says that watching things evolve has been really fun.

“Well, if country music doesn’t change, what fun is that? So, I like the fact that it’s different than it was,” he says. “I grew up on [Merle] Haggard and [George] Jones, but I’m sure Haggard and Jones, if they ever heard of Garth Brooks, went, ‘Pfft — punk,’ you know?

“Everybody that comes before you is a God, everybody that comes after you’s a punk, and that’s kind of how it is,” Brooks adds. “It’s fun to see the change, and it’s fun to try to keep up with it.”

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