JACKSONVILLE, FLA. – No hoodie, cowboy hat or cowboy boots. Garth Brooks doesn't look very Garth-like this afternoon.
But in his combat boots, black industrial jumpsuit and ball cap, he looks like a man on a mission as he arrives at a news conference shortly before taking the stage at Jacksonville Memorial Arena. He apologizes for being several minutes late and gazes purposefully at a couple of dozen media representatives. He's here to talk about "Man Against Machine" — his first album of new material in 13 years that arrives on "11/11," he says — and his return to the road after a 16-year break to raise his three daughters.
He's booked 11 concerts at Target Center in Minneapolis, starting Thursday, and sold more than 190,000 tickets — a record for Minnesota and for Brooks himself.
"Knowing when you part that curtain and go out on that stage, you're gonna get a hell of a show from them" — meaning the fans — "that's St. Paul/Minneapolis right there," he said fondly, remembering his nine-concert run at Target Center in 1998, when he set his previous single-city mark of 162,833 tickets sold.
Brooks likes numbers. Big numbers. Like: 134 million albums sold, a figure bested only by the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Since he launched the Garth Brooks World Tour in September with a whopping 13 shows in suburban Chicago, might he try to extend his Minneapolis run to set a new record?
"No," he said. "As [his longtime promoter] Ben Farrell would say, 'I think we drained the swamp.' "
There's no resignation in his voice. No braggadocio, either. Brooks sells sincerity. The room can be full of people, but he looks you in the eye and, like Bill Clinton or Bono, makes you feel you're the only person who matters.
"I found him to be extremely genuine, very down to earth," said Shane Wooten, a Florida country singer who interviewed Brooks for American Country Mobile Television. "A lot of artists you meet don't always match their stage persona. From the news conference to the stage, Brooks didn't seem like he changed much."