Garth Brooks Announces New Album And World Tour

One of Country music’s biggest stars is putting on his boots and hopping back in the saddle again. Garth Brooks announced via a web conference that he will soon be releasing a new album, putting his music up for sale digitally, and gearing up for a three-year world tour. The news is huge for whichever cities he travels to - more announcements will be made over the next week - as Brooks set several concert attendance records last time he toured, and he's hoping to do so again. At an estimated $60-$80 a ticket, it sounds like an insane goal for most artists, but Garth still believes he has friends in low places.

Brooks says the 60%-70% completed album, which will be released in partnership with RCA around Black Friday, will "damn straight" have cowboy songs on it. And he won't be pushing out any modern pop country trends like "bro country," instead falling back on the "Garth music" that made this guy a garthillionaire in the first place.

Perhaps even more shocking is that Brooks will be making his music catalog available digitally to the public for the first time ever. (He notoriously fought with Apple when iTunes required his songs to be sold individually.) And don't bother looking anywhere beyond Brooks' own website to make your purchases, as he's forgoing all other outlets and selling it himself at "a stupid price." The site is set for a complete relaunch in the next few days, while his music will go up in the next couple of weeks.

Take a look at Brooks giving the announcement below.

The announcement comes not long off the heels after his five day stint in Dublin, Ireland, was cancelled. Irish officials said due to ordinances, Brooks could only play three of his scheduled shows, and Brooks responded by cancelling all five.

At this time, Brooks concert people are still making plans for the trip. This puts pressure on the Dublin officials to either let him play all shows, or miss out on an estimate $68 million in revenue for the city. That’s insane when you put it up against the fact that some cities have actually lost money hosting the Super Bowl.

The last time Brooks went on tour, Billboard says he pulled in about 5.5 million people and grossed $105 million. That was the first time a Country music artist had ever grossed over $100 million dollars on a concert tour. Perhaps more impressive, is that Brooks only charged twenty dollars a ticket at the time. He retired from Country music in 2001, and made a few appearances over the years, but not many.

Will you guys pony up the money to see Garth Brooks in concert again?