Garth Brooks reveals why he gave up being world’s ‘biggest superstar’ to raise his children in Oklahoma

YUKON, OKLAHOMA: When you think of Garth Brooks, it’s easy to picture the cowboy hat, the guitar, and stadiums filled with fans belting out 'Friends in Low Places'.

But there’s another side to the country music legend—a side that traded the spotlight for school drop-offs, bedtime stories, and a little 700-square-foot bunkhouse in Oklahoma.

In his new book, 'The Anthology Part IV: Going Home', Brooks opens up about the years he stepped away from his record-shattering career to focus on family.

When Garth Brooks traded the stage for suburbia

Back in 2000, Garth Brooks shocked fans when he announced his retirement at the height of his fame. Imagine this: the biggest name in country music, a decade of chart-topping hits, and then out of nowhere — he pulls the plug to be a father.

“It was a big deal, and it was stirring,” recalled Storme Warren, a broadcaster for Brooks’ SEVENS Network. “We all sat there and went, ‘He just announced his retirement after ten years on top, ten years of being the biggest superstar on the planet.’”

For Brooks, though, it wasn’t about headlines. It was about his three daughters—Taylor, August, and Allie Colleen Brooks —and figuring out how to be the father they needed. He moved back to Oklahoma — where he was raised — to give them something he felt only he could provide.

But leaving the stage wasn’t just a professional pause; it was a personal upheaval. In his book, Brooks doesn’t sugarcoat the transition.

“I announced my retirement and went to Oklahoma. That’s where you’re going to learn to be a dad, watch your marriage end, and get as lost as you’ve ever been,” he wrote. "How do you do that? Well, I sure didn't know — I had to go through it in order to find out how to do it. It was one of those things." 

He continued, "More than anything else at that moment, I wanted to be a good dad, just one-tenth what my own dad was. My job before that was pretty easy. ‘Honey, I’d love to help with the kids, but I got to go out on a tour where people are going to be screaming my name, and everyone's going to be trying to make me happy."

"My God, it was my work, but I couldn't blame not being a real dad on that anymore. Thanks to God and the people, we were more than financially secure, and these kids needed their own lives. They didn't ask to come into this world, I asked for them to come into this world."

Garth Brooks talks love, loss, and co-parenting

Garth Brooks’ first marriage to Sandy Mahl — the mother of his three girls — was already on shaky ground by the time he stepped away from music. The couple tried to make it work, even staying with Sandy’s parents in Oklahoma for a while.

“Sandy and I were going to make one last run at our marriage. Because, c’mon, you were married with your family present and in front of God, so you keep thinking it’s just got to work,” Brooks shared.

Ultimately, it didn’t. The pair divorced in 2001, but what’s remarkable is how they handled the aftermath. Brooks and Mahl co-parented with a level of dedication that’s rather rare, exchanging their daughters every single day at 6 pm for 14 years.

“The thing that wasn’t going to end, of course, was the family,” Brooks explained. “And what I came to learn was the person you are separating from is the person you need as your best friend in the process of ending a marriage. It's the hardest time for that, but it's the thing your family needs the most. And Sandy did that, for the situation, for the girls, and for me."

Garth Brooks speaks of the darkness before dawn

As much as Garth Brooks tried to put family first, the transition wasn’t seamless. Living in a tiny bunkhouse on their shared Oklahoma property, he faced what he described as “a kind of darkness I hadn’t known before.”

The singer admitted, "My family had made a lot of sacrifices so that I could pursue my dream. Now it was my turn to make a few. And, as I found out in time, it was no sacrifice at all. It was another gift. But before the gifts could come through, I had to let some things go. I went into a kind of darkness I hadn't known before."

Reading his children to sleep, being there for every moment, big or small—it became his new definition of success.

"A man will blame having to make a living for the times he wasn't there for his family. We'll do that to justify why we're gone all the time. When you're on the road playing shows, there's sure no reading your kids to sleep — that's right in the middle of the heart of everything," he wrote.

"But I'm telling you, that reading kids to sleep thing, that's the best part about parenting. I could not do it from the road. I finally had to stand up and say I wasn't going to be a dad that saw my kids one weekend out of the month. I just wasn't going to be. Because my dad wasn't."

He continued, "You just had to say, ‘Hey, look, as much as I love doing music, being a parent is a thousand times better. No offense to music.’ Anybody that's ever been a parent knows there's nothing that beats that. I could live without music for the rest of my life. I can't life without my children for one second."

Enter Trisha Yearwood

Fast-forward to 2005, and a new chapter begins: Garth Brooks marries Trisha Yearwood. For those close to Brooks, it was clear Yearwood wasn’t just a new partner—she was a much-needed force in his life.

Bryan Kennedy, a songwriter who’s worked with Brooks, said, “Trisha Yearwood was the difference in his life. He can always be himself around her. The greatest thing he ever did was marry Trisha.”

Brooks himself called Yearwood his “savior.”

"There was no manual for what I was looking to build. The big thing for me, the savior that was on the horizon for me, would be Trisha, because she's going to come in, and these girls are not only going to have a companion that is not their mom or their dad, but they're going to have an example that lives with them," Brooks said.

"How to treat people, how to be yourself, how to be independent. The little yellow house [what he called the home where he and his children, and later Yearwood, lived for a time in Oklahoma] was going to change when she walked into it. We were all going to change when she walked into that house," he concluded.

Balancing scandal and legacy

Garth Brooks came out of retirement in 2014, and he did so with a bang. But not all headlines about Garth Brooks are tied to heartwarming anecdotes. Recently, he found himself facing serious allegations from a former makeup artist who accused him of assault during a 2019 work trip.

Brooks has vehemently denied the claims and countersued, accusing the woman of attempted extortion and defamation.

While the allegations might cast a shadow, they don’t seem to dim the light Brooks shines on his family-first legacy in 'The Anthology Part IV: Going Home'. The book hit the shelves on Friday, December 6, Fox News reported.