The superstar admits Friends in Low Places is too nice to be called a dive: “Ain’t no honky-tonk I was raised in looks like this!”
Garth Brooks hasn’t put his name on his brand-new honky-tonk on Nashville’s Lower Broadway. And except for his one gangbuster opening-night show on Friday, he also doesn’t plan to appear on its stage.
The reason, Brooks made clear at a news conference this week, is that the Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk is no vanity project. It’s his pay-it-back gesture to the city that gave him his career and it’s his pay-it-forward gift to new generations of artists.
“This town has been amazing to me,” Brooks, 61, said, standing on the venue’s stage in front of a large gaggle of reporters. “When this [opportunity] popped up, the thought was, does Garth Brooks owe Nashville? You bet Garth Brooks owes Nashville. So, I’m looking at Lower Broadway, going, it’s not the fact that Garth Brooks is missing, but ‘Friends in Low Places’ is missing here … So that’s why it’s not the Garth Bar. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: You can like Garth Brooks. You cannot like Garth Brooks. Either way, chances are, you probably sang ‘Friends in Low Places.’”Indeed, Brooks posited — with both pride and humility — that the song, perhaps his most iconic hit, is better known than he is. The song’s lyrics also reference a dive bar that surely bears no resemblance to what Brooks has masterfully created. The sleek and open space features a lengthy stage (that retracts to create a dance floor), a state-of-the-art sound system, massive video screens, multiple bars, a vast wall of picture windows overlooking Lower Broadway’s hubbub, and a second-floor balcony that Brooks says offers “the best seat in the house.”
“This is for those next guys,” he said of the up-and-coming performers who will soon be gracing the Friends stage. “They get to come here and play. And I’m gonna admit this: It’s too nice! … Ain’t no honky-tonk I was raised in looks like this, right?”Brooks fondly reminisced about his early days, playing in ramshackle joints not good for anything but “selling beer and just playing country music,” eating day-old sandwiches left over from a big-name act that played a venue the day before, and “cramming seven guys and all your gear in an eight-passenger van, and just being stinky.”
“This,” he said, grinning amid his high-end surroundings, “doesn’t feel stinky to me!”The venue got its grand opening on Friday with Brooks performing in front of about 600 lucky fans who’d won tickets through the BIG 615, one of the stations on Brooks’ global radio network on TuneIn. (Over 2 million entries were received in just the first 10 days after Brooks announced the contest last month.) The show streamed live on Amazon Prime, as well as on the Garth Channel on TuneIn, and will reportedly be available for replay on Prime soon.
One in a series of “Dive Bar” shows that Brooks has performed in recent years, the Friday night event featured such requisite favorites as “The River,” “The Dance,” “The Thunder Rolls” and, of course, “Friends in Low Places.” Brooks’ superstar wife, Trisha Yearwood, made a guest appearance for a “Shallow” duet, Fellow Oklahoman and Hall of Famer Ronnie Dunn also joined Brooks on their duet, “Rodeo Man,” which appears on Brooks’ new album, Time Traveler.After Friday, the venue will have what Brooks called a “soft opening” as work on it continues.
“We’re gonna try and stay open on the weekends,” he said. “Then if we stay open the weekend, maybe we’ll go past New Year’s, maybe into Valentine’s, shut back down again, and then in March open this whole thing up.”
Upon completion, Friends in Low Places will feature both drink and food service on five floors, including a rooftop bar called the Oasis, another nod to the song.
The establishment joins a neon constellation of celebrity honky-tonks on Nashville’s famous downtown strip. So far, other country stars with bar-restaurant-music venues include Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan and Alan Jackson. Eric Church’s venue is soon to open.
Brooks is undaunted by the competition, saying he subscribes to Las Vegas hotelier Steve Wynn’s philosophy. The goal, he said, is “not to get a bigger slice of the pie, but to make the entire pie bigger.”
At the moment, the space still looks like a work in progress. So far, twin palm trees reaching to the vaulted ceiling are among the few decorations. (They’re named “Earl Bud” and “Dewayne,” Brooks shared, after “Friends in Low Places” songwriters Earl Bud Lee and Dewayne Blackwell.) Palm trees also carry over into the venue’s logo, perhaps fitting for an artist who’s sung “Two Pina Coladas,” “Message in a Bottle,” and, for that matter, “The Beaches of Cheyenne.”
Any cowboy motif, Brooks said, will mostly have to be provided by the hats and boots of the patrons. He says fans will also be invited to send in their own eclectic memorabilia for the venue’s walls, but he’s not planning to raid his own plaque and award stash to put on display. So, no, don’t expect the honky-tonk to become the Garth Museum.
“That’s for another building and another time,” Brooks teased.The venue opening has been just one highlight this week for the country legend: On Friday, his latest box set, which includes Time Traveler, was officially released, exclusively at Bass Pro Shops. The seven-disc set, which also includes previously released albums, is the third and final edition of his Limited Series.
At the press conference, Brooks also announced 18 new dates are being added next year to his Las Vegas residency, “Garth Brooks/Plus ONE,” which launched in May at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
Brooks is clearly enjoying the spontaneity of his latest Vegas engagement, as well as the audience’s focused attention. He’s ensured that by requiring audience members to bag their phones.
“It truly becomes a laboratory,” he said. “You’ll never see a set list. The band almost quit because of that, and then they started to say, ‘OK, I get this.’ We don’t even know what’s coming up next, which makes them play more fun … So, everybody has a good time. So no set list, no cameras. It’s just all off the cuff … and people are sweet enough to play along.”
The phone requirement, Brooks added, has been creating unexpected benefits. “What I love,” he said, “is the friendships they’re making while they’re waiting for the show. Used to, they were buried in their phones, but now they’re having to talk to people that they don’t know. That’s a beautiful thing.”
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