Brooks is planning to return to the dive bar stage

Garth Brooks is speaking candidly about his decision to cancel the remaining 2021 dates of his stadium tour due to a resurgence of rising COVID cases. During what he calls “probably the toughest Monday night conversation” on his Inside Studio G: A Monday Night Conversation Facebook Live series, Brooks detailed why the shows weren’t postponed instead.

“It was the right decision to make, even though it’s not my favorite decision,” he says. “I’m the guy that makes the decisions, so I’m gonna take all of this. No problem whatsoever… What’s happening is we’re starting to get shows we can’t perform. Now, try to remember 2021, we dropped the flag to go out and tour because we thought the wave was behind us. Now, the second wave comes. Now, you’re gonna see [other] tours dropping out, too. Now, what happens is 2022 becomes impossible to book dates for arenas, stadiums. So, why not delay it… postpone it instead of clean it? Because we can’t guarantee we’ve got a date in ’22, and remember this stadium tour ends no matter what in August or September of next year. So, that’s always been the word. It will always be the word. COVID will not make this stadium tour go longer than it has been. We’ve got just a few amount of dates, and remember weather plays a big part in the stadium tour, right? So you can’t book in January. You can’t book in February. So, everything kinda starts happening towards March, April, towards the summer outdoor months for these stadiums.”

Brooks adds, “Also, try to remember this, people — and this is crazy. There are more people at a Garth Brooks concert in all of these stadiums than there are for any sporting events because we get to use the floor, too. So, access is even more, during a Garth Brooks show. So, why is football playing and we’re not, even though we’re in the same stadium? [There’s a] lot less contact in football because everyone’s got their assigned places where everyone goes. In the concert, you roam so that’s a lot of people side by side.

“So, again, I hate to say it was the right decision because I hated the decision and I hate being responsible because I’m an artist. Artists shouldn’t be responsible. We should get to make stupid mistakes like all of us get to, right? And, so it was a little tough.”

While many artists and promoters are now enforcing proof of COVID vaccination or negative test before entry, Brooks says he can’t make those decisions for those outside of his team, and chose to cancel instead.

“I’m vaccinated, one hundred percent vaccinated. Everybody on the freakin’ tour, vaccinated. Has to be,” he shares of his working requirement. “I cannot make you get vaccinated. Until it becomes a law, it is a choice. And people, when things are a choice, you have to understand and respect that we’re all going to make our own choices.”

In the meantime, Brooks is planning to continue his Dive Bar Tour this fall where the environment is more safer and controlled.

“This fall, dive bars,” he says. “Because you can fully vaccinate dive bars. People have got to have their card to even get in. The only way to get in through dive bars [is] country radio, your local country station.”

No dates or other details were revealed, but his last dive bar performance was in July at The Westerner in Utah where he said everybody followed the rules and was vaccinated.

Brooks is hoping to restart the stadium tour in 2022.

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