Garth Brooks earns eighth diamond award

Singer celebrated seven diamond awards with special concert in 2016

Garth Brooks has earned an unprecedented eighth diamond award. The country superstar sees the feat with The Chase getting certified for ten million in sales on January 23rd. This puts Brooks’ numbers at 156 million overall, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), retaining the crown as the No. 1 selling solo artist in U.S. history.

The album follows Garth Brooks, No Fences, Ropin’ The Wind, The Hits, Double Live, Sevens and The Ultimate Hits in being certified diamond with sales of ten million or more of each. Brooks marked the unrivaled achievement of becoming the first recording artist in the history of music to earn Seven Diamond Album Certifications with a concert in October 2016 in Nashville featuring guests Jason Aldean, Kelly Clarkson, Reba McEntire, Chris Young, Steve Wariner and wife Trisha Yearwood.

Brooks is on the verge of earning his ninth diamond award as In Pieces achieved certification of nine million on December 13th. On Valentine’s Day, Triple Live was certified at four million, No Fences at 18 million, and Fresh Horses at eight million.

Each of the new certified albums are part of Brooks’ new Legacy vinyl collection that was released in November 2019. The project sold 420,000 in 18 hours during the first pre-sale window in February 2019, and has moved over one million units of the 14 disc box set containing seven vinyl records and seven CDs.

The news comes as Brooks releases the live video of “Dive Bar” with Blake Shelton. The performance is from Albertsons Stadium in Boise, ID on July 19th, 2019. It was the first time the pair sung the “rowdy” (Rolling Stone) and “anthemic” (Billboard) track together live.

“Dive Bar” is currently climbing the country radio charts as it nears the top five. Upon its debut it was the most added song at country radio and is taken from Brooks’ forthcoming studio album, Fun, which is scheduled for sometime this summer.

The single inspired Brooks Dive Bar Tour where he plays smaller venues between stadium dates. The first Dive Bar concert was at Joe’s on Weed Street in Chicago in July 2019. The second was at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, CA, in August 2019. The third was at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, TX in September 2019. The fourth one was The Barn in Sanford, FL October 2019. The fifth stop was at The Dusty Armadillo in Rootstown, OH, also in October 2019. The sixth show was at Prospector’s in Mt. Laurel, NJ on December 2nd. The seventh show was also scheduled for December 2nd at the Six String Grill and Stage in Foxborough, MA, but was postponed until last month due to weather.

Brooks continues his massive Stadium Tour this weekend at Ford Field in Detroit with Chase Rice opening. Brooks set the record for the largest attendance at a one-night musical event with over 70,000 tickets sold in only 90 minutes for Ford Field. This will be Brooks’ first time ever playing at Ford Field and the only Michigan stop on three year long Stadium Tour.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn