Garth ‘reluctant’ to play fourth night
Brooks, who has three daughters — Taylor, August, and Allie — took time out from his career over a decade ago to be with them until they all turned 18.
He told RTÉ’s John Murray yesterday that he only agreed to play in Croke Park on Monday, July 28, when his youngest daughter, Allie, said she wanted to celebrate her birthday in Ireland.
“The first answer was no because that’s my baby’s 18th birthday and I figured she wanted to be back here in the States with her friends.” said Brooks.
The singer said he was “in negotiations” with Allie as to whether she can get a tattoo for her birthday.
“She said: ‘Dad, I would love to spend my 18th birthday in Ireland. Can I get a tattoo?’ And I thought, oh crap, here we go!”
Brooks said her sisters were allowed to get little hearts tattooed on their feet when they turned 18.
“This third one is her own person so we’ll see. It will be her decision,” he said.
He said Allie was going to witness “the sweetest people on the planet” when she came to Ireland.
He also said his Limerick fans, who had experienced difficulty getting tickets, would be looked after by Ticketmaster.
“I heard there may have been some difficulties in Limerick,” he said, referring to a story about gardaí being called to a store after a computer glitch prevented ticket sales last week.
There was no violence among the fans, who dispersed in minutes, but anger was expressed.
“We’re going to make sure that those people get the tickets that they need,” he said. “They were sweet enough to stand in line. I can’t believe people would do that.”
Ticketmaster said they would be placing a special focus on their Limerick outlet to make sure everything went smoothly.
Brooks will break U2’s record for the most concerts at Croke Park when he plays to an expected 320,000 people at the venue.
NEWS: EXTRA date - 28th July, The GARTH BROOKS Comeback Special Event. Tickets on sale Thursday #GarthBrooksCrokePark pic.twitter.com/0QYS0OjTMN
— Aiken Promotions (@aikenpromotions) February 3, 2014
At €65.45 a ticket, the four nights should raise just short of €21m. And Brooks says he is even willing to add on more dates if there are any more disappointed fans.
The singer, who will celebrate his 52nd birthday on Friday, has already started preparing for his comeback special in Ireland.
Speaking by telephone from his home in Oklahoma, he said he was going to go out on the farm when the snow storm cleared and lay out the drawing of the stage.
“That will be my workout every morning — just to get out on that thing, move around on it and figure out how to try to get to as many people as we can,” he said.
* Tickets for the extra date go on sale this Thursday at 9am. www.ticketmaster.ie.
