Garth Brooks is ending his eponymous The Garth Channel on SiriusXM, after six years. The country music superstar began the channel, which played an eclectic list of his own favorite music and artists, as a way to support ticket sales for his massive tours. With his Stadium Tour wrapping up this weekend, after performing five shows in Ireland at Croke Park Arena, Brooks says it is time that The Garth Channel comes to an end as well.
“My time with Sirius has been great,” Brooks tells CMT. “It’s all coming to the end of a chapter and start of a one. When this was all planned years ago, it was so everything would end out at the end of the stadium tour. So now the stadium tour has come to an end, and The Garth Channel will go with it.”
When Brooks began The Garth Channel, it was with a goal of playing mostly his music, although he quickly tired of that plan.
“That got old quick,” Brooks admits. “And then like three songs, four songs, five songs — you keep messing around and find the balance.”
The Garth Channel might be ending, at least for now, but in typical Brooks fashion, he won’t say if his departure is permanent.
“They’ve been very, very sweet,” Brooks acknowledges. “So it’s cool. We just have to see what’s next for us, whatever that is.”
For Brooks, his favorite part of The Garth Channel was the ability to play whatever he wanted, even if — or especially if — the songs came from multiple genres.
“The greatness was that you could hear Bruno Mars and Merle Haggard back to back and you heard two great artists with two totally different great kinds of music, and you liked them both,” Brooks tells Billboard. “So that was a sweet message to get across. I love that you heard Aretha Franklin with Adele and Tammy Wynette, and all of that worked.”
While The Garth Channel might be ending, the Country Music Hall of Fame member is grateful for the years he had on SiriusXM, and the impact it had on his tours.
“[The Garth Channel] sold a ton of tickets for us on the [Arena] Tour and a ton of tickets for us on the Stadium Tour and now the drive for what it was and what it stood for is coming to a close,” Brooks says. “We plan this purposefully for all our stuff to be coming to a close here to see what our next step might be.”
Brooks has three more shows on his Stadium Tour in Missouri, on September 30, October 1 and October 2, to wrap up his Stadium Tour. Those dates are all sold out. Keep track of updates here.
