Leuzinger chats with us at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville
Garth Brooks has used the same studio musicians for all of his albums from 1989 to the present. This group of seven players is known as The G-Men and has worked with the country superstar for 35 years and counting, curating the “Garth Sound” that changed country music.
Drummer Milton Sledge, bassist Mike Chapman, keyboardist Bobby Wood, rhythm guitarist Mark Casstevens, lead guitarist Chris Leuzinger, steel guitarist Bruce Bouton, and fiddlist Rob Hajacos can be heard on every album Brooks has recorded, sans 1999’s rock concept album, …In The Life of Chris Gaines. Their first recording session was on August 25, 1988, at Jack’s Tracks on historic Music Row in Nashville. Songs such as “Not Counting You,” “I’ve Got A Good Thing Going, “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),” and “Nobody Gets Off In This Town” were among the first songs the group recorded live in the studio with Brooks.
Brooks is the first to see nine of his albums certified diamond for sales of 10 million each by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The country star retains the crown as the No. 1 selling solo artist in U.S. history with a total of 157 million overall, according to the RIAA, only second ever to The Beatles’s 183 million.
In 2016, Brooks and the G-Men, along with producer Allen Reynolds and engineer Mark Miller, were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville. The late Joe Chambers founded the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2006, marking the only museum to honor the greatest musicians of all time. Inside, guests will find everyone from Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley to Glen Campbell and Hal Blaine as members of The Wrecking Crew, the famous group of Los Angeles studio musicians who recorded hundreds of top 40 hits throughout the 1960s and 70s.
During the 2023 CMA Fest, Leuzinger took The Music Universe on a tour of the facility where he talked about the history behind some of music’s greatest songs Following the tour, he gave us an exclusive on-site sit-down interview, taking us further into the depths of his career, his appreciation for Chambers and his surviving widow (now-CEO Linda Chambers), and crediting Brooks with being the “the most loyal artist on the planet.”
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