Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood will christen Mercedes-Benz Stadium, new home of the Atlanta Falcons, as the first entertainers to perform in concert there, at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 12. (tickets are on sale June 30 with a pre-sale starting June 27).
"It's very flattering. It's very humbling. They had their pick of everybody," Brooks said during a conference call interview on Friday afternoon. Talks have been in the works for months, and they're beyond impressed with the facility and everyone involved with concert production.
"We've been down there three times," he said. "The lighting crew, video crew ... treated us like royalty."
PAST COVERAGE: Garth Brooks at Philips Arena
You can listen to the interview here:
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The new facility will seat 75,000 but hardly feels like it, he said.
"Stadium shows are a little bit harder work. This one is going to be pure joy. There's not a bad seat in the house," he said. "I don't know how they did it. It does not feel like a 75,000 seat stadium. It's built that well, that tight. "
We didn't have a lot of time to talk but there was time enough for Brooks to spill a little intel. Instead of eating at restaurants or traveling with a chef on the road, Team Brooks-Yearwood employs a local caterer at different tour stops.
There's one big condition: "The only way they get the gig is they have to cook out of her cookbook," he said. "It's like having a home cooked meal without having to do the dishes."
Brooks is apparently way into carbs (his Father's Day feast involved lasagna *and* mashed potatoes) and says he's met some folks who get his wife's recipes down pretty well.
"If you repeat this to Trisha I'll deny it: they get really close," he said with a chuckle.
We interviewed Yearwood about "Home Cooking With Trisha Yearwood" when it came out several years ago.
"We try to have a home-cooked meal at least two or three times a week," she told us at the time. "We laugh a lot. The stories get told. It's that family connection you lose when you skip that."
That book, written with her mother, Gwen Yearwood, and sister, Beth Yearwood Bernard, follows her first book, "Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen." Many of the recipes have personal ties, such as Grandma Yearwood's Coconut Cake or Garth's Breakfast Bowl, named in her husband's honor.
Trisha Yearwood is a Georgia native, hailing from Monticello, making the upcoming Atlanta gig all the more special.
"(Trisha) is so excited about coming home," Brooks said. "Half that stadium is going to be her family," he said. "She's going to make that stadium feel like family. I'm going to be really interested to see if she makes it through without crying."
Here's the Facebook Live video clip of Brooks announcing the big news:
AJC reporter Jewel Wicker was first to report the news of the Brooks-Yearwood concert. Here is her article.
