“I was expecting this one”: Garth Brooks says he’s excited about Salt Lake City stadium show

SALT LAKE CITY – Garth Brooks couldn’t hold back his excitement.

The legendary country singer enthusiastically walked the upper deck of Rice-Eccles Stadium during a press conference on Friday before insisting on peeking out the window at the giant stage below.

“I have to see this,” he said, marveling at the huge structure. “I was waiting for this one.”

Brooks will perform at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday as part of his current tour, which the country superstar says will be his last stadium series. Ahead of the stadium show, he will also perform a Friday night set at the Westerner in Salt Lake City as part of his Dive Bar tour.

Ahead of the performances, Brooks spoke with members of the Utah media on Friday. And while that term may suggest prepared statements spoken behind the catwalks, Friday’s event was anything but. He walked back and forth on a stage as if performing his songs, noting that he preferred to have a conversation instead of just talking to the people in front of him.

It’s finding those personal connections that fuels Brooks and makes playing in Utah such a great experience, he said.

“You know when you come here – polite and nice people every time. It’s a pleasure to be where you play,” he said.

The serious artist got a little emotional on several occasions when talking about being able to perform in Utah and return on tour after the music industry largely took a year off during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brooks Stadium Tour began in 2019 but was put on hold during the pandemic. The tour resumed on July 10 in Las Vegas, a show that was repeatedly postponed before finally taking place.

He had lost practice a bit after not playing for so long. But Brooks said having a great team, group and audience in Vegas made it easy to get back into the mix.

“The band sounded good, and then here’s the train wrecks one after the other because they didn’t,” he said. “And you see people thought of it as joy and love… and that’s when it started to have fun.”

A lovely conversation with Garth Brooks, who may be the nicest, healthiest person I have ever interviewed. pic.twitter.com/yZDJsExMiJ

– Jacob Klopfenstein (@JFKlopfenstein) July 16, 2021

When an audience allows the artist to make mistakes and deal with it, that’s special, Brooks said.

“These people will allow me to do it, I’ve seen it here before,” he added. “They are not looking for perfection, they are looking for sincerity.”

Brooks feeds on an audience and what it gives back at concerts. It’s an exciting time to hear an audience sing “Friends In Low Places”, his iconic mega-hit, then turn around and sing “The Dance”, a more melancholy ballad, with the same enthusiasm they had for ” Friends “. he said.

“So you get ‘Friends In Low Places’ and you get the hype, and here’s something like ‘The Dance’, and you can hear it in their voices – the sincerity that is there.”

The concert will be hot – temperatures at the time of the show are expected to be in triple digits. Brooks urged people not to go early to Rice-Eccles Stadium; the show, scheduled for 7 p.m., will likely start a bit late so people don’t cook in the heat, he said. There will also be areas available in the stadium for people to cool off.

Utah Transit Authority will modify its service to bring people to and from Saturday’s concert. Starting around 4:30 p.m., TRAX trains will run every 20 minutes between Draper Town Center station and Stadium station, with no transfers required, according to UTA. Red Line trains will also run every 10 minutes from Fashion Place West to Stadium Station.

After the concert, UTA has designated 10 additional TRAX trains, which will run every 4 to 7 minutes as needed and will serve each station on the green, blue and red TRAX lines.

On Saturday, Brooks will play in front of tens of thousands of Utahns. But he said he doesn’t mind when audiences give as much as they put into a concert.

“It’s easy, man, when you play with people and hear them sing to you,” Brooks said. “Being sincere and falling in love is the easy part.”

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