‘The sky is the limit’ country star Lainey Wilson reflects on ACM wins
Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks host the 2023 ACM Awards. Winners from the night included Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson and HARDY.
Cody Godwin, USA TODAY
Garth Brooks is counting his blessings in the spirit of Thanksgiving — and wife Trisha Yearwood is one of them.
On Monday’s episode of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” the Grammy-winning country singer/songwriter, 61, was asked what he’s grateful for this year. When it comes to the holiday, it doesn’t hurt that Brooks is “married to one of the greatest cooks on the planet,” he told host Kelly Clarkson.
The “Friends in Low Places” singer then delved deeper, causing both himself and Clarkson to tear up.
“When it comes to the future, you know, I think what you’re grateful for is just one more day of getting to do this,” Brooks said. “What I’d love to say is: The day I take my last breath on this planet, I’d love for my three girls to be around me. And I’d love for the queen to be around me.”
Brooks and Yearwood, 59, have been married since 2005. He shares three daughters, Taylor, 31, August, 29, and Allie Brooks, 27, with ex-wife Sandy Mahl.
“But as far as Miss Yearwood, I’ve said this before: I found her in a past life; I’ll find her in the next,” Brooks told Clarkson. “She makes it fun, you know? She makes it really fun.”
Clarkson, wiping under her eyes, said her makeup artist was going to “kill” her for crying. “I’m not tearing up,” Brooks insisted with a sniffle after she pointed out how emotional he was getting.
Garth Brooks has tattoos dedicated to the ‘five strong women in my life’
While guest hosting “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2021, the country music power couple shared their secrets to having a long-lasting marriage.
“I think you gotta treat it like a duet,” Brooks said. “You gotta harmonize. You gotta make your partner feel like they’re a star. And, if not, you’re gonna turn into a solo act pretty damn quick, if you know what I mean. We’re talking about lone fiddler, bass solo.”
Earlier this year, fellow country singer Yearwood joined her husband onstage during his Las Vegas residency to perform a duet of “Shallow,” the Oscar-winning ballad from “A Star is Born.” When Yearwood forgot the words to her 1991 smash “She’s in Love with the Boy,” Brooks came to her rescue and popped back out to sing the second verse.
The couple is no stranger to working together as musical partners. Their 1997 song “In Another’s Eyes” — a collaboration that happened while they were just friends and married to other people — earned the pair a Grammy in 1998.
Much of the ink decorating Brooks’ body is dedicated to the women in his life. His daughters’ birth years, 1996, 1994 and 1992, are on his left arm “so they’re always by my side,” he told USA TODAY in May. The tattoo on his back shoulder represents his mother as “the angel on my shoulder,” and his full left chest is dedicated to Yearwood.
“Five strong women in my life,” he said. “I love ‘em.”
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Contributing: Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY