The Greatest Rock Star Who Never Was: Garth Brooks, Chris Gaines, and Modern America

By Heather Maclachlan


Garth Brooks is the most widely sold country music artist of all time, and one of the best-selling recording artists of popular music. As of July 2007, 116 million copies of his albums have been sold. He is more commercially successful than any other musical artist except the Beatles and Elvis Presley. In November 2005, Brooks released a new box set entitled The Lost Sessions. The set covers the latter part of Brooks's recording career; it includes the 1997 Sevens album, the 1998 Double Live album, and the 2001 Scarecrow album. Interestingly, the set does not include the pop-rock album that Brooks released in September of 1999 under the name "Chris Gaines." Furthermore, this album is not mentioned in the extensive biography on his Web site, www.garthbrooks.com. evidently, Brooks does not wish to revisit this moment in his career, when he changed his look, his sound, and his name in an attempt to recreate himself as a rock star.