There aren’t many artists who would sell out five nights in Croke Park in a heartbeat and draw more than 400,000 people to their warm musical embrace.
In fact Garth Brooks might be the only living musician who could pull off such a feat and he has managed to do it not once but twice.
The first time – way back in 2014 – did not end well either for the singer with friends in low places, his legion of fans all over Ireland, the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny or even the Mexican ambassador who offered to act as a peace maker to see if the concerts could go ahead as planned.
Issues over licensing saw the five concerts become three and then none as tomorrow never came and what promised to be the musical happening of 2014 turned into a shambles thatis destined to play a starring role on Reeling In The Years for all the wrong reasons for the rest of eternity.
But that’s all water under Binn’s Bridge now and Brooks is back with a bang.
To mark the opening of his five night stint in Croker, In the News talked to so of his biggest fans – and we’re talking really, really big here – and music writer Tony Clayton Lea to find out who Brooks is and why some many people in Ireland are obsessed with the man and his music and why so many others don’t like him very much at all.
