Alan Hughes chats to Garth Brooks about announcing two dates in Croke Park next July.

Monday 20th, 17:30pm

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IMMEDIATE: Monday 20th January, 2014.

Alan Hughes chats to Garth Brooks about announcing two dates in Croke Park next July.

Garth Brooks announced today that he will be playing two dates in Croke Park next July and Alan Hughes caught up with the country singing legend to talk about his big return to Ireland after 17 years.

The country superstar appeared in Croke Park for the special announcement, he told Alan that Ireland is ‘the greatest land of love’ and it was ‘the obvious choice’ when picking places to bring the tour.

Tune in to Ireland AM tomorrow morning to see the full interview.

Ireland AM airs Monday to Friday on TV3 from 7am – 10.45am on TV3.

Ireland AM’s Alan Hughes caught up with Garth Brooks in Croke Park today as he announced the Irish leg of his tour 'The Garth Brooks Comeback Special Event' in July.

The country superstar, who hasn’t played in Ireland since 1997, told Alan that Ireland is one of his favourite places to play.

“I just can’t explain how well you guys are at welcoming people. It’s the greatest land of love. I just love playing over here.

“It’s just how you make people feel. I feel like on top of the world today and when I come out on this stage and see these people and hear them sing, the top of the world is going to get even higher for us if it’s possible.”

When Alan told Garth that the Pope was the only other person that a record number of people came to see in Ireland, he laughed and said: “That’s pretty good company I guess.”

“That’s pretty sweet. This [Ireland] is the place. When you talk about how you’ve been gone since 1998 and you’re going to do a comeback special, where do you want to do it and this was the obvious choice. And let’s make sure we all understand each other, I’m not coming back here to relive what was there. We’re coming back here to do bigger and better things than we did last time and it won’t be us that does it, it will be you guys who do it. It’s always you guys who take it to something historic. It’s never the band, it’s never the music, it is always the crowd. That’s why I love coming here.”

When Alan asked about how some of Garth’s band members cried when they were told that the tour would kick off in Ireland, the country singing legend replied:

“Oh yeah, they loved it. They were so excited because we’re all one family and have been forever so even on this break they were playing for other people or crewing for other people but when it came back together, when we all came back together and when they heard this was it, they couldn’t think of a better way to start.”

Speaking about his wife Trisha Yearwood, Garth said that she may not join him on stage but she could be watching in the crowd.

“When we got married the whole thing was ‘why are we getting married to be apart?’ So even though she didn’t retire, she cut back on touring a lot so we go everywhere together. I imagine we’ll be together during this whether she steps out on stage or not…”

Alan left Garth with a parting gift of a Gaelic football, hurley and sliotar but when Alan suggested he throw them into the crowd in July, a shocked Garth asked if the sliotar would kill someone!

Tune in to Ireland AM tomorrow morning to see the full interview.

Ireland AM airs Monday to Friday on TV3 from 7am – 10.45am on TV3.

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