Garth Brooks Retirement
 Official retirement
As his career flourished, Brooks seemed frustrated by the conflicts between career and family. He talked of retiring from performing in 1992 and 1995, but each time returned to touring. In 1999, possibly also spurred by falling record sales, Brooks appeared on The Nashville Network's Crook & Chase program and again mentioned retirement.
In 1999, Brooks and his wife separated, announcing their plans to divorce on October 9, 2000. The divorce became final in 2001.
Two weeks later, on October 26, 2000, Brooks officially announced his retirement from recording and performing. Later that evening, Capitol Records saluted his achievement of selling 100 million albums in the US with a lavish party at Nashville's Gaylord Entertainment Center.
Brooks's final album, Scarecrow was released November 13, 2001. The album did not match the sales levels of Brooks's heyday, but still sold comfortably well, reaching #1 on both the pop and country charts. Although he staged a few performances for promotional purposes, Brooks stated that he would be retired from recording and performing at least until his youngest daughter, Allie, turned 18. Despite ceasing to record new material between 2002 and (most of) 2005, Brooks continued to chart with previously recorded material, including a top 30 placing for Why Ain't I Running in 2003 .
Second marriage
In the mid-1990s, many tabloids reported throughout the decade that he was actually having an affair with longtime friend and collaborator Trisha Yearwood. The two have continually denied having had an affair. Following Brooks's divorce, however, the pair did begin dating, and the couple wed on December 10, 2005, at their home in Oklahoma, marking the second marriage for Brooks and the third for Yearwood.
Partial comeback
In 2005 Brooks insisted that he was not touring and did not plan to record any new studio material until 2015. However, in August 2005 it was announced that Brooks had signed a deal with Wal-Mart, leasing them the rights to his back catalog following his split with Capitol. Three months later, Brooks and Wal-Mart issued The Limited Series, an inexpensively priced six-CD box set containing past material and a Lost Sessions disc with eleven previously unissued recordings. This set marked the first time in history that a musician had signed an exclusive music distribution deal with a single retailer. The set sold more than 500,000 physical copies on its issue date, proving that Brooks still had a large fan base, and by the first week in December 2005 had sold over 1 million physical copies.
Critics slammed Garth for re-releasing material, forcing his fans to re-purchase what they already owned. In a huge marketing ploy the, Limited Boxset contained, The Lost Sessions which contained eleven new tracks. The CD was re-released outside the boxset a month later featuring seventeen tracks, forcing fans to re-purchase what had already been sold to them.
Garth had to go back and fix the song, Good Ride Cowboy because he mentioned that, Chris Ledoux had been a, Navy brat when his father was actually part of the, Airforce. The re-recorded version of the song appeared on the, expanded edition of, The Lost Sessions.
Wal-Mart also released a DVD boxset, called, The Entertainer. The set was issued in a metal box that contained little information as to what was inside. The DVD set includes, Garth Live from the Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas (1991), Garth Live from the Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas (1993), Live From Dublin (1997), Live From Central Park (1997), and a greatest hits video featurette.
Brooks took a brief break from retirement in late 2005 to perform for several charity causes. With Yearwood, he sang John Fogerty's Who'll Stop the Rain on the Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast nationwide telethon for Hurricane Katrina relief. He also released a new single, Good Ride Cowboy, as a tribute to his late friend, rodeo star and country singer, Chris LeDoux.
Later in the month Brooks performed at the Grand Ole Opry's 80th birthday celebration. Selections included a duet with Steve Wariner on Long Neck Bottle, another joint effort with country legends Bill Anderson, Porter Wagoner, and Little Jimmy Dickens, and a solo guitar version of The Dance.
On November 15, 2005, Garth performed Good Ride Cowboy with Chris LeDoux's band, The Western Underground, in front of a live audience in Times Square in New York City, as part of the 2005 Country Music Association Awards show. In December, the single reached #1.
In early 2006 Wal-Mart issued The Lost Sessions as a single CD apart from the boxed set, with extra tracks including a top 25 duet with Yearwood, Love Will Always Win. The couple were later nominated for a Best Country Collaboration With Vocals Grammy Award for the song.
Garth made a surprise appearance with wife, Trisha Yearwood at the, Live Earth concert in Washington DC. The concert was aired live on July 7th, 2007. Garth and Trisha also appeared on, Oprah.
Effects of retirement
On November 1, 2006, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced that Garth Brooks made history as the company's top selling music artist of all time. With nearly 20 million discs sold at Wal-Mart in the first year of his exclusive relationship with the retailer, Brooks has been able to transcend his retirement and continue his history-making performances.
Brooks proclaims that his job as a father is a lot harder than touring. In a CMT Garth Brooks concert special he also remarked I love what I'm doing, but I miss what I did. In virtually every interview he has done in 2006, Brooks has talked about whether he's going to stage another tour, often saying if the door opens up he would have a tour that is better than anything he's ever done.
Second comeback
On August 18, 2007 at a press conference in Nashville, Brooks announced plans for a new boxed set called The Ultimate Hits. The new set features 3 discs containing 30 hits, a DVD featuring music videos and an updated video for We Shall Be Free, and four new songs. The album's first single, More Than a Memory, was released to radio on August 27, 2007. Other new songs include a duet with Huey Lewis on Lewis' 1982 hit Workin' For a Livin', Midnight Sun, a song Garth co-wrote, and a bonus track, Leave a Light On. The set was released on Brooks' own label, Pearl Records, and promoted by Big Machine Records, the label to which Brooks' wife, Trisha Yearwood, had signed only a few months before.
More Than a Memory debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated for the week ending September 15, 2007, becoming the highest-debuting single in the chart's history. The previous record had been set only one week earlier, when Kenny Chesney's Don't Blink debuted at #16.
On September 27, 2007, it was announced that Garth Brooks will perform at the new Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri on November 14, 2007. The show was sold out in 4 minutes. Then Brooks added another 8 shows to be performed at the Sprint Center from November 5-12, which all sold out on the day of their release, October 6, 2007. Brooks' also announced that the show on November 14 will be broadcast live in movie theaters all around the world.
On November 5, The RIAA held a press conference to announce that Garth Brooks has reclaimed the top honor of being the Best Selling Solo Recording Artist in Music with sales in excess of 123 millon records sold.
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