Garth Brooks continues to break concert records and cause a fan frenzy, even after having been temporarily retired from the road for more than a decade. The entertainer sold more than 140,000 tickets on Saturday, November 6, and what started as one benefit concert to help flood victims exploded into nine sold-out shows at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. The day's ticket sales set a record for Tennessee, breaking a concert record previously held by Michael Jackson at Knoxville's Neyland Stadium with 72,000 tickets.

"A very special thanks to country radio, the great people at Ticketmaster and everyone who helped with the on-sale and most of all the people who showed up to get tickets," says Garth. "It's great to be a part of the healing."

To truly show his appreciation to those folks at Ticketmaster dealing with the flood of phone calls, Garth sent the workers pizza to thank them for all of their hard work.

The legendary performer will play nine full concerts in six days: December 16, 17, 19, 20, 21 and 22, with two shows on the 16th, 21st and 22nd. More than $3.5 million was raised from ticket sales at $25 per ticket, with all proceeds going to The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to continue to assist victims who were impacted by May's tragic floods, which caused more than $2 billion in damages in Nashville alone.

The benefit concerts, which will include Garth's wife, Trisha Yearwood, his full band and some surprise guests, are his only arena shows of the year, and it marks his return to the Nashville area since 1998.

As far as special guests go, Garth isn't revealing any names, even though he did say he was going to call on his pal Steve Wariner. "We can use all the help we can get," he said at a recent press conference announcing the initial concert date. "As you get older, entertaining gets tougher, so we can use all the help we can get. And mostly just surprises so nobody's expecting or paying for something that they don't get. Now that the dates have been announced, we'll make that call out to our fellow artists for help."

Garth, who performed several shows in California to benefit the victims of the wildfires a few years ago, remains retired except for his five-year deal with the Wynn Encore in Las Vegas to do occasional performances.

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