Who Is Yukon Jack? Garth Brooks' Alter Ego Explained

Garth Brooks brought back an old alias and played a club in Denver on Thursday night (Sept. 3). Yukon Jack is back!

If you're under 40 it's fair to ask, "Who is Yukon Jack?"

The Yukon Jack show at Grizzly Rose in Denver precedes four sold-out shows at Ball Arena this weekend.
Along with his band, he tore through 16 well-known hits for a crowd of 2,000 people.
After Denver, Brooks will play back-to-back weekends in Chicago, Washington D.C., and Orlando.

Yukon Jack is actually Garth Brooks' very first alias, coming years before he transformed into Chris Gaines. The origin of the name is fairly simple.

Where Does Garth Brooks' Yukon Jack Alias Come From?

In 1993, Brooks was traveling to play the national anthem at the Super Bowl and decided to take a detour to Clovis City Limits in Clovis, N.M.

Of course, announcing that Brooks — at the height of his fame — was descending on the eastern border of New Mexico would create chaos, so he booked the show under "Yukon Jack."

The result? Well, it was chaos, but chaos remembered fondly. Clovis City Limits closed up shop 18 years later, just as Brooks was starting to tease his next comeback.

Why that name?

"Yukon" is the city in Oklahoma that Brooks was born in. He's never explained "Jack," but it could be a hat-tip to Jack Clement and Jack's Tracks, the studio producer Allen Reynolds owned when he recorded all of those early Brooks albums (Brooks bought it in 2010 and renamed it Allentown).

Other Country Music Alter Egos and Aliases

Brooks is hardly the first or last country singer to use an alias to play a secret show or record a secret album. Hank Williams went by Luke the Drifter to show his spiritual side.

Granger Smith transformed into Earl Dibbles Jr. to unleash his inner redneck.

Country Music Hall of Famer Ferlin Husky invented a country comedian named Simon Crum, and Charles Kelley once created a side project called Dick Fantastic and the Fabulous Four Skins.

T-Swizzle (Taylor Swift) and Douglas "Big Rhythm Doug" Douglason (Dierks Bentley's role in Hot Country Knights) are a couple more. All of these projects were short lived.

Yukon Jack Set List at Grizzly Rose In Denver:

1. "Rodeo"
2. "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House"
3. "The Beaches of Cheyenne"
4. "Two Piña Coladas"
5. "Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old)
6. "The River"
7. "That Summer"
8. "The Thunder Rolls"
9. "Callin' Baton Rouge"
10. "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)
11. "Shameless"
12. "Fishin' In the Dark"
13. "The Dance"
14. "Piano Man" (Billy Joel Cover)
15. "You Never Even Call Me By My Name" (David Allan Coe Cover)
16. "Friends In Low Places"

See the Most Played Country Song from the Year You Were Born

Who had the most played country song during the year you were born? This list is a fascinating time capsule of prevalent trends from every decade in American history. Scroll through to find your birth year and then click to listen. Some of these songs have been lost through the years, many of them for good reason!

Men named Hank dominated early before stars like Freddie Hart, Ronnie Milsap, Willie Nelson Clint Black took over to close the 1980s. More recently it's been Tim Mcgraw, Rodney Atkins, Kane Brown and Morgan Wallen. Did the most-played country song from the year you were born become a favorite of yours later? All info comes from Billboard's country airplay charts.

Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes

Source: Garth Brooks’ Yukon Jack Alias Explained

Filed Under: Garth Brooks