Recently, Garth Brooks was asked (again) if he plans on touring in the near future, and he said, "Our youngest is a junior in high school now. Our oldest, we just celebrated her 20th. If God lets us do it and everything goes well, I would love to tour again". I would love to have the opportunity to see Garth in concert again because his shows really do live up to the hype. Back in 1998 I was the mid-day DJ at 105.3 WYNG in Evansville, Indiana and we got word that Garth was going to make a stop in our city. Back then, Garth didn't show up, do a show and leave. The demand for tickets was unbelievable. He couldn't just do one show and pack up & leave. He would often perform several shows in consecutive nights. When tickets went on sale for the Evansville show, the first show sold out in less than 10 minutes, so they added another, which sold out in the same amount of time so they added another, and another. A couple days before the concert my Program Director, Jimmy gave me tickets to the third show and told me that Garth was doing a press conference before the concert and asked me if I wanted to go. Of course I said "yes" but figured I'd just be there so I could say I was in the same room as Garth. I had no plans on asking any questions until that morning. I was on the air and around noon I got a call on the request line from a florist in Nashville. He asked me what the big occasion was, and I had no idea what he was talking about. He said "some record company just ordered 14 dozen roses to be delivered to a 'Roberts Stadium' tomorrow night. What's the deal?". I told him I really couldn't even guess, and we small talked a little before I had to let him go. A little while later, the wheels started spinning....I remembered reading that Garth would track his ticket sales, and often have a prize or gift for his 1 millionth, 2 millionth 3 millionth etc ticket holders during the show. Since he was doing quite a few shows, those events happened on a somewhat regular basis, but it hadn't happened in a while, so I thought maybe that's it. Maybe he's going to surprise his "X-millionth" ticket holder. (I knew the number at the time. I believe he was coming up on his 4 millionth ticket holder) So I went to my PD, Jimmy, and ran my theory and he said "ask him". I left his office with absolutely no intention of asking Garth anything, because I thought either someone would beat me to my question, or I would be too intimidated to speak up, look Garth in the eye and ask him a question. Later that night I was in a conference room with a bunch of other radio/TV folks and Garth comes out & starts his conference. In my head, I thought everyone in there would have 20 questions for him and I wouldn't even find a pause to interject with my question, even if I mustered up the courage to speak up. To my surprise, there were few questions (and even fewer GOOD questions) so I decided that I was going to "man-up" and ask a legit question. It took me a few minutes, but I found a spot to jump in and I said "Mr Brooks, I'm Ryan and I work at one of the country stations in town. When I was on the air today I got a call from a florist in Nashville wondering why a record label ordered 14 dozen roses. Is your 4 millionth ticket holder in the audience tonight and if so can you tell us what other gifts you have for that person?". I noticed that as I was speaking he had a somewhat blank expression on his face. When I finished, he crossed his arms and leaned back in his folding chair and didn't say a word. He sat there for a good 5 seconds and slowly started to smile and said "you guys are soooooo sneaky. No comment." Then he looked over at the guy he walked in the room with and laughed & said "No comment. I can't believe......no comment". Apparently I ruined his surprise. The first thing that went through my mind was "I hope I didn't just get a florist fired". That portion of the press conference ran on all the news channels that night (of course they didn't credit me or the radio station for cracking the story) and they made a pretty big deal about it, and in fact, Garth's 4 millionth ticket holder was in the audience the following night. I believe they won a new truck, 7 day vacation and, of course, 14 dozen roses. I had the opportunity to do a phone interview with Garth in 2006 and was tempted to ask if he remembered the incident, but elected not to press my luck. I think he was a little ticked at me. Sorry G.
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