Garth Brooks takes the stage to perform with his band at the T-Mobile Arena on Friday, June 24, 2016.
Monday, May 15, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Garth Brooks geared up to open his second Las Vegas residency this week by hosting the 58th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on May 11 at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas.
After a show-opening performance by fellow Vegas resident headliner Keith Urban (who returns next month to Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood), Brooks took the stage to host an awards show for the very first time. Before introducing his co-host Dolly Parton — who quickly upstaged him with a series of naughty jokes — Brooks hyped up the audience by explaining, “As singers, our paths are lit and paved by the artists who come before us. These musical gods create the foundation for the next generation to stand on.”
He was talking about country music artists in general, but the same statement is true of country music residencies on the Las Vegas Strip. Shania Twain, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn, George Strait and many others launched residency shows after Brooks’ groundbreaking “Garth at Wynn” concert series from 2009 through 2014 at Encore Theater. Today, Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert are among the country stars coming back to the Strip throughout the year.
The 61-year-old Brooks, the only artist with nine certified Diamond albums, kicks off “Garth Brooks/Plus One” at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Thursday, May 18. The new show was originally announced in November with 27 dates running through December 16, but the residency has already been extended into 2024, although those dates have yet to be announced. More information and tickets are available at ticketmaster.com/garthvegas.
After he played the first capacity concert at Allegiant Stadium in July 2021, Brooks essentially tested the Strip for another residency with a pair of performances at Park MGM’s Dolby Live in February 2022. Those were marathons, with the Tulsa-born superstar rolling through 40-plus songs each night, including a variety of covers like “Piano Man” and “Unchained Melody,” and plenty of his biggest hits from the 1990s like “Shameless,” “Friends in Low Places” and “The River.”
“Plus One” promises to be a melding of his big theater/stadium concert production and the intimate Wynn residency shows that saw him sharing stories and interacting with the audience.
“What I love about the residencies is you can see every individual and see what’s going on with them,” Brooks told Billboard in November. “If you’re sitting there going, Why am I straying so much in my head right now? Boom! You’ll find that person that this is their favorite song. And then it becomes your favorite song to sing right there in the moment. That’s what I really love.”
He’s also said he’s planning to provide lots of surprises and special guests throughout the new residency, and his equally legendary wife Trisha Yearwood will almost certainly be making multiple appearances. After all, she the number one plus one.
