NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Reigning Country Music Association entertainer of the year Garth Brooks will perform on a date to be announced at Notre Dame Stadium, the first artist to ever play in concert at the iconic football venue.
The announcement was made Monday (July 9) at a news conference here that included Brooks, former University of Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz and representatives from the University.
“Notre Dame Stadium has seen so many iconic moments!” Brooks said. “I look forward to bringing a new kind of crazy to the party.”
“Right from the outset, I just felt that Garth represents Notre Dame’s values,” said John Affleck-Graves, Notre Dame’s executive vice president. “And he is the perfect choice as the first artist to perform in concert in the stadium that Rockne built. This promises to be one of the biggest events in Notre Dame’s history.”
Mike Seamon, vice president for campus safety and event management at Notre Dame, added: “Tradition and memories are built in that stadium. It’s an iconic place. This is an important moment, and once we decided we were going to have a concert, Garth just jumped into our minds right away. And we knew that he had to be the one. That was it.”
Brooks will be the first artist to perform a full, stand-alone concert in the 88-year-old football stadium that has been the home to nine national championship teams, seven Heisman Trophy winners and 75 All-Americans, and has hosted several artists who performed one or two songs during football halftime shows and at the 1987 Special Olympics opening ceremony.
“It’s never been done before, and it’s our understanding that Garth loves to do things that haven’t been done before,” said Lee Sicinski, the University’s associate vice president for event management. “To bring a historic event like a Garth Brooks concert to the stadium, it just gives you goose bumps.”
Brooks has been named CMA entertainer of the year six times, the most for any artist. He is also the first artist in history to receive seven Diamond Awards for the now seven albums certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) at more than 10 million album sales each, and he remains the No. 1-selling solo artist in U.S. history as certified by the RIAA with more than 148 million albums sold.
Brooks has received every accolade the recording industry can bestow on an artist, including induction into the International Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame and, most recently, the Musicians Hall of Fame.
He just finished the three-and-a-half-year Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood, breaking records previously held by such acts as The Beatles, Rolling Stones and, even, himself. The tour played 79 cities and 390 concerts, selling 6.3 million tickets, making it the biggest North American tour in history and the biggest tour in the world by an American artist. More information is available at www.garthbrooks.com.