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The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour takes the country music superstar to Regina's Mosaic Stadium on Aug. 10. (submitted photo/garthbrooks.com)
GARTH BROOKS STADIUM TOUR

Garth Brooks: ‘There’s just something about Canada’

Jun 6, 2019 | 12:11 PM

Every athlete or performer knows its important to power up before a big competition or performance. For country music superstar Garth Brooks vitamins and power drinks are on the menu.

“My vitamins and power drinks are M&M’s and Dr. Pepper,” Brooks joked in an exclusive interview with Saskatchewan Country CKBI Radio in Prince Albert. “You just go out there and have fun and it’s gonna wear your ass out because, c’mon, you’re trying to move across a stage now three times the size of any stage you’ve ever seen us on in an arena.”

The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour will be stopping at Mosaic Stadium in Regina on Saturday, Aug. 10. Brooks told CKBI morning radio hosts Chris Knight and Teena Monteleone that stadiums are becoming his favorite venues to play in. Nearly 84,000 fans took in the unofficial kickoff of the tour with a concert at the college football venue Notre Dame Stadium in October 2018.

“Notre Dame kinda pushed us over the edge to say ‘Hey look, stadiums don’t have to be cold, stadiums don’t have to be echoey, stadiums don’t have to feel like you’re not all part of a smaller more personal group,’” Brooks said.

Highlights from Garth Brooks’ stadium concert in Glendale, AZ. (submitted video/garthbrooks.com)

Regina is the first Canadian stop on the Stadium Tour which will take him to about 10 stadiums each year for the next three years. So far, no other Canadian dates have been announced, but in his interview on CKBI radio Brooks’ alluded to more.

“I love getting to play in Canada. You’re the first of many dates up there, so we’re excited to get started,” he said.

When asked by the radio hosts if there is anything he likes or has to do when in Canada, Brooks joked about curling and how his band and crew love ‘the thing where you put shots on the one paddle and everyone has to drink’ but he mostly referred to his love of the people.

“There’s something about Canada and I think it all started for us on tour and also in our foundation when we went to the National Hockey League (NHL) and started messing around with those athletes and you just meet good people, man,” Brooks said. “Most people come from farms up there and they’re like people you grew up with – common sense, good hearted people who love and know their country music inside out.”

Brooks’ Teammates for Kids Foundation is a charity that provides scholarships for children to attend sports camps with professional athletes including some from the NHL.

Tickets for the Garth Brooks Stadium Tour stop in Regina go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. and are expected to sell out quickly.

“This is gonna be fun,” Brooks said. “And, I hope right in the middle of the night you look around and go ‘holy crap’ – this is why [we picked] Regina.”

You can listen to the full interview with Garth Brooks on Chris and Teena’s morning show on Saskatchewan Country CKBI by clicking here.

Teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TeenaMonteleone