The following article is provided by Rolling Stone.
Ten months into his first tour in 13 years, Garth Brooks is giving his concerts a facelift.
When he returns to the road in Dallas September 17th, the country icon will reveal a revamped stage set-up for his shows with wife Trisha Yearwood. "We have taken a lot of looks at what's working, got rid of the things that weren't, and we're coming out with a brand new look," Brooks tells Dallas country station 102.3 Blake FM. "We're going to redesign that whole video world. The wings of the stage are a little different and the set list is starting to fall into the sweet spot. Being out there that long, doing over a 100 shows on this tour so far, it's starting to [reach] the sweet spot, but this redesign we're excited about, so we're bringing a whole new look."
Even if fans have seen Brooks in concert since he resumed touring last September, he says they can expect some new surprises. "If anyone came to Tulsa or down to Houston, or over to New Orleans, this is going to be a different look than what they saw," he says.
Brooks has sold more than 100,000 tickets to his seven shows at Dallas' American Airlines Center, breaking his previous Dallas arena record of 50,213 tickets when he played Reunion Arena in 1998. Brooks and Dallas have a love affair that goes back several decades. His first NBC special, This Is Garth Brooks, was taped at the city's Reunion Arena in 1991 and the follow-up, This is Garth Brooks, Too!, was filmed at Texas Stadium in 1992.
Brooks' show has been averaging more than two hours, but the time flies by for him, he tells Rolling Stone Country. "Truthfully, it feels like about 10 minutes and that's what you want because then you know you're not worrying about anything, you're not thinking about anything, you're just following your heart," he says. "And that's when live shows, to me, get fantastic."
So far, Brooks has sold more than 2.5 million tickets, playing up to 11 shows in some cities to meet demand. The U.S. portion of the tour will last through 2017, he says, but may be continued after he plays in Europe. After such a long hiatus, Brooks is in no rush to take a break again. "I can't have enough places to play," he says. "If we get through with this American leg and there are some cities out there that we're going, 'You know what? How do you do a tour without these cities?'. . . then I think we extend the American leg or come back and finish it, for sure."
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