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Garth Tix: Going, Going, Gone

Tue., Oct. 9, 2007 4:35 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Garth Brooks is an utter sellout.

The black-hatted crooner's rare return to the concert stage has proven one incredibly tough ticket, with all nine scheduled shows selling out in less than two hours.

To mark the release of his Ultimate Hits on Nov. 6, the semiretired "Friends in Low Places" singer initially agreed to headline a single concert at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, with wife Trisha Yearwood singing shotgun.

But tickets to that first show, set for Nov. 5, were snapped up in four minutes on Saturday, prompting Brooks to add eight more shows, Nov. 6-12 and 14. Those shows, too, quickly sold out—some 160,000 seats in all.

"For the first time in my life I'm speechless," Brooks quipped to the concert trade magazine Pollstar.

Save the occasional benefit appearance—like his duet with Yearwood at a 2005 Hurricane Katrina benefit, a performance at the Grand Ole Opry's 80th birthday bash and last summer's Live Earth concert in Washington, D.C.—Brooks has been MIA from the concert circuit for the past seven years.

His last major tour was a three-year trek in support of 1997's Sevens. That road show raked in $105 million in ticket sales and was the first $100 million-grossing tour in the U.S.—an even more impressive feat considering Brooks intentionally kept prices at just $20 a ducat.

Brooks, the bestselling solo artist of all time, with more than 100 million albums sold in the U.S., announced in 2000 he was taking time off from recording and performing to devote himself to raising his three young daughters in Oklahoma.

But lately, he's been flirting with a comeback.

In August, the entertainer denied reports that he was considering a tour in support of his new greatest hits boxed set, stating he had no intention of hitting the road until his youngest daughter graduated high school in 2015.

However, the two-time Grammy winner did hint he may play the odd show.

Indeed, following his nine-night stand in Kansas City, Brooks has confirmed plans to join fellow country stars Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Vince Gill and Carrie Underwood for a Nov. 16 concert dubbed the Oklahoma Centennial Spectacular, which also will include the Flaming Lips and Amy Grant.

Ultimate Hits will feature four new cuts cowritten by Brooks, as well as a duet with Huey Lewis on the latter's 1982 hit "Workin' for a Livin'." The 34-track, three-disc box set will also include a DVD of videos and is being released on the country star's own Pearl Records with Yearwood's label, Big Machine Records, handling promotional duties. The first single, "More Than a Memory," was released to radio stations last month.