Garth Brooks Named Inaugural Inductee To Live Hall Of Fame At Pollstar Conference

“It’s a total shock and quite an honor,” Brooks said upon accepting the surprise honor before a packed Wilshire Ballroom at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Hotel. The country superstar thanked his team, including co-manager Bob Doyle and longtime promoter Ben Farrell, whom he said “made my career possible.”

In December, Brooks wrapped up a three-year run in which he sold a record-setting 6.3 million tickets, which marked a return to touring after 13 years off to concentrate on family. 

In explaining the launch of the Live Music Hall of Fame, Leiweke said he and his team had wanted to create “a place to honor artists who have made a huge impact on the live business,” and Brooks was a consensus choice. 

Leiweke also noted that the live entertainment industry generates more revenue than the movie exhibition business and makes double streaming earnings; yet, he said, the live industry doesn’t receive credit commensurate with its economic and cultural import.

 “The Recording Academy has the Grammys, the movie business has the Academy Awards, but we in live don’t do enough to honor the artists who have changed our industry – the artists who have gone out and touched tens of millions of fans. So we are creating a new tradition here at Pollstar that is vitally important for our industry and a priority for us going forward and that is a Live Music Hall of Fame.”

“Ticketmaster’s worked with Garth for over 20 years and it’s been a phenomenal partnership,” Ticketmaster’s Smith told Pollstar. “He’s always working on new and better ways to ensure tickets get into the hands of fans, and makes an effort so that all fans get a chance to see him.” 

Brooks’ record-setting tour was capped by seven sold-out shows at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and which the Tennessean itself cited as cause for Music City’s own-record breaking tourism numbers in 2017.