Garth Brooks: '100 gigs in Ireland wouldn't be enough'

Garth Brooks has told The Louise Duffy Show on RTÉ Radio 1 that "a hundred gigs in Ireland wouldn't be enough" for him as he looks forward to his shows next summer.

The singer will perform two shows each in Belfast, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Cork next May and June, with tickets going on sale on Thursday, 12 November.

"There's just something about it," Brooks said of playing in Ireland.

"I think you guys are just too close to it. You live it. But that's where musicians go and artists go for heaven right there.

"It's just wonderful. Just the way the people sing, they're all on pitch, they all breathe with you.

"It's so easy to just be yourself, and that's the sweetest gift you can give somebody is let them be themselves and be ok. You guys have always just let me be myself, so we are very excited."

"All I can tell you is I'm not coming there for you: I'm coming there for me! And anybody that I love and everyone that I love - the band, the crew - they're so excited," he continued.

"We're running what we call 'an outdoor run', where the stage, kind of like if anybody went to Hyde Park [in London in June 2026], it'll be that kind of a production.

"So, we don't need everybody that's on the tour to go with us, but everybody wants to come. We're trying to figure out who we're bringing and who we're not bringing.

"Everybody wants to be there, and that's because you guys got it down, man. You got the love thing down right. You've got how to exist with each other right, how to move through traffic right. You've got it down right and it's just a joy to be there."

When asked about the decision to tour around the island, Brooks replied: "We either go to Dublin in our past, we go to Belfast, we go to Northern Ireland, and it kind of asks Ireland to come to us in Dublin.

"The misconception or the mistake that people make is that they think you come into town on full and you just give all the energy you have while you're there. The truth is you come into town to play music on empty and you fill up while you're there. That's always how it's worked for us.

"So, when people go, 'Oh my gosh, how are you going to do 10 shows?' It's like, 'How could you not if you get the chance?' That's what we're excited about.

"I will tell you this: I feel sorry for anybody that wants to come [to the concerts] because I'm going to work you like rented mules. We're going to have a great time. It's going to be loud and it's going to be long, and that's my favourite thing."

Brooks laughed when he was asked about his mother Colleen McElroy Carroll's Irish roots.

"Well, she said her family was from Cork, but then I find out that that was where a lot of the people left Ireland to come to the United States," he explained.

"So, it might have been just a place where everyone left out of. I have never done the deep dive in, simply because my mom's history was so scattered, same way with our dad.

"We weren't one of those families that had a great grip on what our history was. We were more like just... We call ourselves mutts. We were just mixed blood of all kinds. It's always been that and it's always, though, it's not where you're from; it's where you're headed.

"And so, I enjoy the Irish in me. My wife might not like it too much because I'm stubborn!"

As he signed off ahead of his Irish shows going on sale, Brooks said: "I'm nervous, I'm excited, I'm scared, all the good things."

The Louise Duffy Show, weekdays, RTÉ Radio 1, 3pm

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