Garth Brooks praises Albertans’ country music passion ahead of sold-out Edmonton shows

Legendary country artist Garth Brooks is in Edmonton for the weekend for back-to-back concerts at Commonwealth Stadium as part of his Stadium Tour.

Edmonton is the only Canadian stop.

“I’ve been stunned since the first time I played here, stunned since the first time I played in Calgary, how well they know their country music and the history of it,” Brooks told CityNews.

“So when you get to do that, you get to come in, and you feel relaxed already when you get here so the nerves are not really nerves of feeling nervous, the nerves are ‘I just can’t wait to get out there and have fun.’”

Brooks reminisced on his nine sold-out shows at Rogers Place in Edmonton in 2017.

“What you’re doing is fighting for your life every night, and I love that,” he said. “I even saw someone specifically in those reviews said, ‘the guy looks like he’s singing for his life up there.’ And you are right. Because come on, let’s face it. Everywhere other than Edmonton, they will give you one shot. That’s all you get, right, and you’re lucky you get that one shot and they’ll probably never go to another concert again.

“Here, they seem to go to two concerts, I don’t know if they do this for everybody, but I thank them for doing it for us.”

Garth Brooks says his Stadium Tour has been rough going due to the pandemic, but he says things are looking smooth from here on out.

“I can tell you this, what Edmonton will see will be our best game, because knock on wood, and Good Lord willing, hopefully everything continues going smoothly. It’s moving quick. It’s like you’re up there for five minutes and someone says ‘you’ve been up there for two and a half hours,’ so just really enjoying it.

“Everyone’s happy, everyone’s smiling, and it’s a good time to be on tour.

The Edmonton skies were dark Friday night as Brooks prepared for his opening show.

“Whether it rains or not, the thunder will roll in the stadium tonight, you can bet on it,” he said with a laugh.

Brooks will be playing again Saturday night at Commonwealth Stadium.