How I Failed Garth Brooks in 1998!

In 1998 Garth Brooks, country music's reigning Entertainer of that Year performed nine sold out shows at the Target Center in Minneapolis. B105 chartered buses to take Northland listeners to the shows and my co-host and I were in charge of hosting a limo with one lucky winner and their guest. Everything was going great, then I failed Garth Brooks and have never quite gotten over it.

Let me refresh your memory of those amazing concerts in 1998. Garth sold out a record-breaking nine shows at the Target Center in Minneapolis in October. The first show sold out in just 11minutes, the second in 14 minutes, the frenzy continued until nine shows were scheduled. Until Garth, the venue's ticket sales record was held by Billy Joel. Garth was at the top of his game, Entertainer of the Year, nominations for Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year for "Sevens" and Vocal Event of the Year with Trisha Yearwood for their song "In Another's Eyes".

B105 gave away T-shirts and seats on coach buses, do you remember? Plus one lucky winner would be escorted by the morning show in a limo. I believe the Rinks' of Esko were my limo mates. When we picked them up at their home, they climbed into the limo with a glass blender container full of margaritas, lol!

All the B105 DJ's wanted the opportunity to meet him, but Garth had a very unique meet and greet. He didn't meet a lot of people, so we were forced to draw straws. Trisha and Tom were the lucky ones to be escorted to a back room where Garth had comfy couches set up in a living room atmosphere to wait for him. I was told that on the coffee table was family photo albums they could look through while waiting. Once he arrived he sat on the floor and chatted. It was obvious that he had done his homework and knew tidbits of info about B105, Duluth and even about DJ's Trisha and Tom.

You could feel the anticipation in the venue as we waited for Garth to take the stage. Then...BAM! The moment arrived with high energy, great vocals, and a show like no other. Everyone stood from the minute he walked on stage and throughout the entire concert, I had never experienced that before. We sang every word to every song and adored him!

Here's where I failed my beloved Garth Brooks. Pat and I were doing the B105 morning show as the Breakfast Flakes back in 1998 and we had both been up since 2:30a that morning. Oh sure, the excitement of being that close to Garth had carried me to 9p, but even with the sound level of the music, the clapping, the screaming and such, I was fading fast. I sat down, pooped. I looked to my left and there, four seats down was Pat, also sitting down, pooped and if I'm not mistaken, SLEEPING! I nodded off a few times too :(

I apologize to Garth, his band, his fans. I know, I know, how could I? Here is my promise. If I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend his tour in 2014, I will stand, I will sing and I will STAY AWAKE! Knowing Garth, he would have been understanding, but it's not every day that you get to be in his presence, so I've never quite gotten over it.

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