WANT TO GO?
WHAT: Garth Brooks World Tour feat. Trisha Yearwood
WHEN: April 23, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Ohio State University Schottenstein Center, Jerome Schottenstein Center Borror Dr., Columbus
COST: $74.98 including fees; on sale Feb. 26 at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster.com. Eight-ticket limit applies.
INFO: garthbrooks.com | schottensteincenter.com | Facebook
News of Garth Brooks' first Columbus concert announcement in nearly 20 years this morning got us all jamming to "Friends in Low Places," but we're of course wishing he were actually coming to our town instead.
The number-one top selling solo artist in U.S. history is bringing his Garth Brooks World Tour (featuring his wife, Trisha Yearwood) to Columbus' Schottenstein Center at Ohio State University on April 23, and it's making us nostalgic for his last Miami Valley show at the Wright State University Nutter Center — in 1992?! Hard to believe it's been nearly a quarter of a century now.
That show holds the record for fastest tickets sold out for a single performance: The tickets were gone in a cool 17 minutes.
Longtime K99.1FM Breakfast Club co-host Nancy Wilson has great memories of that show.
"I was working with Paul Ellis on the morning show at the time and we were escorting a dozen winners backstage to meet Garth," she said. "While we were waiting by the stage, a roadie came out and escorted us backstage to meet him. We were taken into a room with a bunch of chairs set up in a big circle with a cooler of beer and drinks in the middle."
Imagine their surprise, when the "roadie" turned out to be Garth himself, wearing sweatpants, a holey shirt and scruffy beard! Nobody recognized him because they didn't expect the man himself to personally walk the winners back.
"He visited with us a good 20 minutes, talking and signing autographs when his manager came in and stood behind Garth giving his all the 'wrap it up' sign," Wilson continued. "Garth turns to him and says, 'you don’t need to rush these folks in here now. All those folks out there aren’t going anywhere! Now, who needs better tickets?' And he proceeds to hand out upgrades to all our listeners."
"Garth is a true class act and always puts his fans first," she concluded. We have to agree!
Year before he became the business editor for the Dayton Daily News, Rich Gillette worked at the Nutter Center. He said he and a fellow colleague were tapped for an important job when Brooks came to down in 1992.
"We were asked to be the 'catcher' for the concert," he said. "This was the tour where Garth would swing out over the crowd on a long rope and then land back on the stage. Our job was to catch Garth as he landed on the stage and make sure the 250-pound former football player didn't fall off the stage."
He said he could still remember the amount of sweat the musician had worked up performing the stunt: "It was as if he had just taken a shower." The crowd was loud as everyone sang along to Brooks' popular songs with him, including one of Gillette's favorites, "Friends in Low Places."
Though Nutter Center Marketing Manager Misty Cox started her role in 1997, she said she's heard from everyone who worked there at that time that Garth was very friendly with everyone.
"He would talk to all of the staff, remember people's names, and make an effort to try to talk to not just the administrators, but to the security team, the people on the floor doing physical labor," she said. That's the kind of celebrity you want to have at your venue!
Last July, the Nutter Center set up a social media campaign to bring Garth Brooks back to the Center ahead of their 25th anniversary in 2017. Fans were asked to tweet with the hashtag #NutterCenter4Garth to boost interest and show his team that the Miami Valley was craving a fresh show. Cox said with the April Columbus show announcement, that prospect is less likely.
"We thought it'd be fun to try (the social campaign) and see if it catches," she said.
Brooks' last area performance was at Columbus' Cooper Stadium in 1997, when his six concerts drew an estimated 95,000 fans, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Sounds like April 23 will be your best chance to see Garth in the area anytime soon. Don't miss out!
About the Author