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The hottest singer in America bounds onto his tour bus chewing a toothbrush. He garbles a folksy hello to a group of fans sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the front area of his custom coach. Some of them wonder: Who exactly is this beefy fellow wearing denims, black Nikes, T-shirt and a dog-eared baseball cap?
It's him, all right: Garth Brooks, the country singer who has America in the hip pocket of his faded jeans. Country is enjoying a major resurgence, but Brooks' success is staggering. His latest album, Ropin' the Wind (Capitol), entered the Billboard magazine album chart at No. 1 nine weeks ago and has, for all but a couple of weeks, stayed put - withstanding challenges by rappers Hammer and Ice Cube, and keeping superstar acts like like Guns N' Roses, Prince, Mariah Carey and Metallica at bay.
Ropin' the Wind has been selling at a clip of up to 300,000 copies a week. According to Bill Catino, vice president of promotion at Capitol Records/Nashville, the album moved 175,000 copies in its ninth week. Hammer's Too Legit to Quit, still fresh after just two weeks on the chart, came in No. 2 with 137,000 sold.
There's more. Brooks self-titled debut album and the follow-up, No Fences, are also in the Top 40. Together, the troika of releases has sold more than 12-million copies in the past year. Brooks' concerts, played mostly in arenas of 8,000 to 12,000, have been selling out in as fast as 25 minutes.
The hottest singer in America - with an exclamation point. But ask the hottest singer in America about it and he replies, sans toothbrush, "All that's just hype."
Brooks has gotten so big that the media machine has begun leaving "country" out of the equation. "I'd like to see the country back in there," Brooks says. "Country's been real, real good to me."
And Brooks has been real good for country. "It says that country is the dominating music in America," says singer Trisha Yearwood, who has been opening shows for Brooks. "It's better for all country artists. A lot more people are listening, putting aside the stereotypes. This gives us all a better chance."
Why is it that a 28-year-old Oklahoman, who wears cowboy hats...