The Review of chris gaines aka garth brooks
Garth Brooks is considered one of the greatest music performance artists of the 20th century. He is a top-selling performer and is one of country music’s greatest innovators. While Brooks credits George Strait’s Unwound as the source of his inspiration to play country music, he also had tremendous inspiration from non-country artists such as James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, and Townes Van Zandt (Seattle Times). It was through these artists that Brooks developed the character—and some would say alter-ego—known as Chris Gaines.
The story of Chris Gaines began in 1999 when Brooks, through his production company Red Strokes Entertainment, along with Paramount Pictures began developing a movie in which Brooks would star as the rock star. The film would center on Gaines, who faced the perils of balancing his personal life with his professional life as a performer.
To help promote the project, Brooks assumed the identity of Chris Gaines in October 1999 (Planet Garth). He also released the album Garth Brooks in … The Life of Chris Gaines, which he felt would serve as a type of “pre-soundtrack” to the film (Planet Garth). Brooks’ promotion of both the film and the album failed to entice much excitement and the success of the Chris Gaines persona was severely lacking as evidenced by less than impressive album sales. Retail outlets significantly discounted excess supply of the albums. Brooks also tried further promoting the album by appearing on shows such as VH1’s Behind the Music and NBC’s Saturday Night Live. He hosted SNL as himself and assumed the Chris Gaines persona as the show’s musical guest. The album received mixed reviews from critics, and fans were left confused about Brooks’ intentions rather than excited about the promotion (Planet Garth). According to Stephen Erlewine’s review of the album, “[fans] were unforgiving – they didn’t think he was playing a role, they simply thought he’d lost his mind.” Some fans felt that purchasing the Chris Gaines album would promote Brooks to continue the alternative rock style of Chris Gaines rather than the country superstar Garth Brooks (Erlewine). The film was placed on an indefinite hiatus in 2001 and the Chris Gaines persona quickly disappeared shortly afterward as well.
There are a number of reasons for Brooks’ dedication to the character of Chris Gaines. As an already major star in the country music world, this gave Brooks a chance to re-invent himself as a pop icon rather than his already accepted country superstar icon. While very few details were released about the film which would center on the Gaines character, part of the story involved the challenge he faced in trying to keep a balance between his family life and being a major rock superstar in the public eye. This was a struggle that Brooks faced firsthand as three children were born in 1992, 1994, and 1996—during the time in which Brooks was reaching the pinnacle of his success. Between recording new material and touring all around the world, Brooks sacrificed a tremendous amount of time that he was not able to spend with his first wife and children. In 2000, he and his wife Sandy Mahl filed for divorce. The divorce would be finalized a year later in late 2001.
While he started dating fellow country music star Trisha Yearwood shortly following his divorce, around the same time, he announced that he was retiring from recording and performing in order to spend more time with his family. He claimed that he would consider resuming the hectic lifestyle after his youngest daughter started college in 2015 (Seattle Times). This parallels the Chris Gaines character in his attempt to balance the need to please fans as well as the need to please his family.
In October 2009, Brooks announced that he was coming out of retirement to do weekend-only performances on the Las Vegas strip, which continued through 2012. Because he only performed weekend shows, he was able to balance his professional and personal life. His goal was to be with his family and see his children grow up. On one of his Vegas shows, he told the audience that once his youngest daughter is in college, he will be “firing the tour back up” (Planet Garth). Without knowing the full story of The Lamb and Chris Gaines, one could only speculate that Brooks took the route that his fictional alter-ego would have taken in order to achieve the rewards of a fulfilling career and taking care of his family.
In 2013, Brooks teamed with Toby Keith to put on a benefit concert of tornado victims in Oklahoma (Planet Garth). Tickets for the show were only $25 and included artists such as Mel Tillis, John Anderson, Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Sammy Hagar, Kellie Coffey, Ronnie Dunn, Carrie Underwood, and Krystal Keith. Brooks stated that he was “amazed at the human spirit the tornado victims [had] shown…[Brooks] was humbled by the giving of the volunteers [and] it was an honor to get to be a part of this healing process” (Planet Garth). In December 2013, Brooks announced that he would be going on a world tour in 2014 (Katie Kindelan).
Overall, whether the creation and portrayal of Chris Gaines was a means for Garth Brooks to provide an insight of the country superstar’s personal life and experiences or if it was a means of fulfilling a fantasy of becoming a rock star like many of his earlier idols, the music world and the fans of Garth Brooks were unable to separate the two. Die-hard country fans were confused as to whether supporting Brooks’ alter ego would lead to a full transition from the country megastar they were familiar with or if this was simply a ploy to promote the film, even though it had not been filmed by the time that the studio album was released. Conversely, rock and pop fans who found Brooks’ “rebirth” as Chris Gaines may have felt the same way, in hopes of seeing more Gaines-persona albums they would buy and support the singles released by Brooks under the Chris Gaines name. The alternate persona may have also been a way for Brooks to escape from his reality at the time as well. He was facing divorce and would retire from performing and recording shortly after the short-lived Gaines persona faded from existence. In the end, regardless of Brooks’ overall intention, he did raise a great amount of controversy with the character and further emboldened his image as a major star in the world of music, not just limited to the country-music genre.
The story of Chris Gaines began in 1999 when Brooks, through his production company Red Strokes Entertainment, along with Paramount Pictures began developing a movie in which Brooks would star as the rock star. The film would center on Gaines, who faced the perils of balancing his personal life with his professional life as a performer.
To help promote the project, Brooks assumed the identity of Chris Gaines in October 1999 (Planet Garth). He also released the album Garth Brooks in … The Life of Chris Gaines, which he felt would serve as a type of “pre-soundtrack” to the film (Planet Garth). Brooks’ promotion of both the film and the album failed to entice much excitement and the success of the Chris Gaines persona was severely lacking as evidenced by less than impressive album sales. Retail outlets significantly discounted excess supply of the albums. Brooks also tried further promoting the album by appearing on shows such as VH1’s Behind the Music and NBC’s Saturday Night Live. He hosted SNL as himself and assumed the Chris Gaines persona as the show’s musical guest. The album received mixed reviews from critics, and fans were left confused about Brooks’ intentions rather than excited about the promotion (Planet Garth). According to Stephen Erlewine’s review of the album, “[fans] were unforgiving – they didn’t think he was playing a role, they simply thought he’d lost his mind.” Some fans felt that purchasing the Chris Gaines album would promote Brooks to continue the alternative rock style of Chris Gaines rather than the country superstar Garth Brooks (Erlewine). The film was placed on an indefinite hiatus in 2001 and the Chris Gaines persona quickly disappeared shortly afterward as well.
There are a number of reasons for Brooks’ dedication to the character of Chris Gaines. As an already major star in the country music world, this gave Brooks a chance to re-invent himself as a pop icon rather than his already accepted country superstar icon. While very few details were released about the film which would center on the Gaines character, part of the story involved the challenge he faced in trying to keep a balance between his family life and being a major rock superstar in the public eye. This was a struggle that Brooks faced firsthand as three children were born in 1992, 1994, and 1996—during the time in which Brooks was reaching the pinnacle of his success. Between recording new material and touring all around the world, Brooks sacrificed a tremendous amount of time that he was not able to spend with his first wife and children. In 2000, he and his wife Sandy Mahl filed for divorce. The divorce would be finalized a year later in late 2001.
While he started dating fellow country music star Trisha Yearwood shortly following his divorce, around the same time, he announced that he was retiring from recording and performing in order to spend more time with his family. He claimed that he would consider resuming the hectic lifestyle after his youngest daughter started college in 2015 (Seattle Times). This parallels the Chris Gaines character in his attempt to balance the need to please fans as well as the need to please his family.
In October 2009, Brooks announced that he was coming out of retirement to do weekend-only performances on the Las Vegas strip, which continued through 2012. Because he only performed weekend shows, he was able to balance his professional and personal life. His goal was to be with his family and see his children grow up. On one of his Vegas shows, he told the audience that once his youngest daughter is in college, he will be “firing the tour back up” (Planet Garth). Without knowing the full story of The Lamb and Chris Gaines, one could only speculate that Brooks took the route that his fictional alter-ego would have taken in order to achieve the rewards of a fulfilling career and taking care of his family.
In 2013, Brooks teamed with Toby Keith to put on a benefit concert of tornado victims in Oklahoma (Planet Garth). Tickets for the show were only $25 and included artists such as Mel Tillis, John Anderson, Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Sammy Hagar, Kellie Coffey, Ronnie Dunn, Carrie Underwood, and Krystal Keith. Brooks stated that he was “amazed at the human spirit the tornado victims [had] shown…[Brooks] was humbled by the giving of the volunteers [and] it was an honor to get to be a part of this healing process” (Planet Garth). In December 2013, Brooks announced that he would be going on a world tour in 2014 (Katie Kindelan).
Overall, whether the creation and portrayal of Chris Gaines was a means for Garth Brooks to provide an insight of the country superstar’s personal life and experiences or if it was a means of fulfilling a fantasy of becoming a rock star like many of his earlier idols, the music world and the fans of Garth Brooks were unable to separate the two. Die-hard country fans were confused as to whether supporting Brooks’ alter ego would lead to a full transition from the country megastar they were familiar with or if this was simply a ploy to promote the film, even though it had not been filmed by the time that the studio album was released. Conversely, rock and pop fans who found Brooks’ “rebirth” as Chris Gaines may have felt the same way, in hopes of seeing more Gaines-persona albums they would buy and support the singles released by Brooks under the Chris Gaines name. The alternate persona may have also been a way for Brooks to escape from his reality at the time as well. He was facing divorce and would retire from performing and recording shortly after the short-lived Gaines persona faded from existence. In the end, regardless of Brooks’ overall intention, he did raise a great amount of controversy with the character and further emboldened his image as a major star in the world of music, not just limited to the country-music genre.