Collection would be country star’s fourth live set

Garth Brooks surprised fans tonight (Fri, July 15th) in Charlotte, NC when he shared news on stage that he was starting to record a new live album. Our own Matt Bailey was in the audience at Bank of America Stadium when Brooks stated that recording has begun for his fourth live collection.

“HAPPENING NOW: Garth Brooks playing Bank of America Stadium announces recording has begun for fourth live album at home of Panthers, performs James Taylor tribute for forthcoming record.”

Brooks said the plan was always to bring the recording trucks to Carolina, even before COVID postponed the show multiple times.

“I’ve been [to Carolina] before. Are you kidding me? Bring the trucks!” he shared from the stage before launching into an eight minute, four song full-band medley that included “In My Mind I’m Going to Carolina,” “Shower the People,” “How Sweet It Is,” and “Mockingbird,” the latter with wife Trisha Yearwood.

He said the live album will honor those who influenced his career. It’s unclear if this will be a covers live album, but fans have been asking for one since video of his One Man Show in Vegas was included as a DVD in his Blame It All On My Roots box set from 2013.

Bailey was in attendance again for the second show in Charlotte on Saturday when Brooks shared the project is tentatively titled Killer Live.

The pair of Charlotte shows are a result of canceling due to last fall’s COVID resurgence. The Stadium Tour wraps the North American leg in Houston on August 6th.

The Stadium Tour concludes with five sold out shows in Dublin, Ireland this September. Four hundred thousand tickets sold out within four hours, marking a new milestone for the country star who hasn’t performed in the city in 25 years. Two thousand additional tickets were put on sale after productions holds were lifted for all five nights. The Dublin dates are rumored to be filmed for a Netflix special.

Brooks’ latest collection of live material was initially released in 2018 as Triple Live Fan Mix. For a limited time, a digital download was offered that allowed fans to adjust the speaker or headphone settings as if they were sitting on stage themselves. Triple Live was also released in standard stereo as part of his Live Anthology later that year and made its vinyl debut in his massive Legacy collection in 2019. A standalone version of the project, dubbed Triple Live Deluxe, was issued in November 2020 with six collectible covers.

In 2016, Brooks issued The Ultimate Collection, a 10 CD box set that contained two additional discs of live material called The Road. The set contained 121 songs, including previously unheard material with live recordings never before commercially available on CD.

Both projects follow Brooks’ first live record, the two disc Double Live recorded during the 1996-1998 World Tour. It’s the No. 1 selling live album in history, with 21 million albums sold, certified by the RIAA.

Brooks confirmed on his Facebook Live series, Inside Studio G, on Monday (July 18th) that Killer Live will put an end to both Double Live and Triple Live pressings.

“Killer Live is the thing we’re woking on out there. It’s gonna be nice,” he shares. “Killer Live is coming. It’s gonna be great. And the reason it’s [called] Killer Live, we’ll actually put an end to Double Live and Triple Live. We’re gonna let ’em cert[ify] out and once they cert[ify] out, they’re gone. You won’t have ’em anymore. Just really really proud of those records, but it’s time to move to the next live one, and it’s coming. We’re doing it right now in the stadiums.”

Brooks also confirmed there will be no encore “housekeeping” songs — where Brooks takes requests from signs in the crowd — on the new project.

“No, there won’t be any housekeeping tracks on there,” he adds, “because ‘When You Come Back To Me Again,’ I lost it right in the middle of it because that was my mama. Man, finally had to just put the guitar down and finish it because I couldn’t do both at the same time. That was a rough one. I love that song. You play it once every five years kinda thing and when it comes out, you just start cryin’ again.”