Garth Brooks Announces World Tour on 'Good Morning America'
Country music superstar Garth Brooks has been coy about rumors his new album and post-Thanksgiving TV special could signal a return to the concert stage as well, until he sat down with " Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts.
"You know what, since it's you and since we've had a history forever, let's announce it. We're going on a world tour in 2014," Brooks told Roberts today on "GMA." "I can't believe I just did that but you are a doll."
Brooks, 52, appeared on the morning show, guitar in hand, to promote his new album, "Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences," a six-disc set includes covers, his greatest hits and a DVD of his Las Vegas show.
When talk turned to a possible tour, the "Friends in Low Places" singer at first said he was worried that, at his age, it would be a "wheelchair and walker tour kind of thing."
After saying his first priority in deciding to tour would be to get approval from his family - wife, Trisha Yearwood, and three daughters - Brooks alluded to an annoucement coming "very soon" before spilling the news himself live on-air.
"It sure feels good to get to throw your hat back in the ring," Brooks said. "All my babies are fine with it. Ms. Yearwood is fine with it. So now I get to do what I love to do, which is play music. I get to be with the person I want to be with, which is Ms. Yearwood."
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Brooks, the best-selling album artist since SoundScan began tracking U.S. sales data in 1991, announced his retirement from recording and performing in 2000.
He told Roberts his decision to do a world tour next year came down to the fact that he is now largely a "phone call dad."
"Our baby is a senior in high school," he said. "My children are off on their own so the guilt of not being there…I'm a phone call dad now. 'Hey Dad, I love you, can I borrow some money?' "
Though Brooks' one-man show at the Wynn Las Vegas is over, the singer said, before their world tour, he plans to bring his full band back to the Wynn in January for two shows.
"Wynn has allowed me to keep that room as a laboratory type of thing so I'm going to bring the band out there and let the band experience this room," Brooks said.
"[It's] very naked," he said of his Wynn residency. "You're just out there with you and your guitar and you depend on the people to kind of take care of you and they have my whole career and so Vegas was just a love-fest."