Country superstar Garth Brooks knows firsthand that if he performs multiple shows in Utah, the fans will show up.
More than a decade ago, the “Friends in Low Places” singer put on four back-to-back shows at the Delta Center, concluding his mini-residency on Halloween night.
Those 2015 concerts set an attendance record at the arena. Eleven years later, Brooks’ shows remain the No. 1 attended event in Delta Center history, with Nate Bargatze’s recent comedy tour holding the second spot, as the Deseret News reported.
Now, Brooks is returning to the Salt Lake venue where he made history.
Garth Brooks adds Salt Lake City shows to his 2026 tour
The singer announced this week that his “Blame It All On My Roots” tour will stop by the Delta Center for two shows on Oct. 9 and 10.
So far on his tour, which started in late August, Brooks has played in Indianapolis and done four-show stints in Denver and Chicago. He’ll perform in Washington, D.C., and Orlando, Florida, later this month.
Tickets for the Salt Lake City shows go on sale Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. MDT, according to his post.
When did Garth Brooks last perform in Utah?
It’s been about four years since Brooks last played in Utah.
During a 2021 summer show at Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium — which sold more than 50,000 tickets in less than 30 minutes — Brooks told the crowd it was “the fastest sellout we’ve ever had, or Ticketmaster’s ever had,” as the Deseret News reported.
After performing for 80 minutes, the singer then dropped a bombshell, telling the crowd he’d return to the venue before his stadium tour concluded so he could give more fans a chance to see the show.
He then kept the crowd going with his “housekeeping” segment, responding to fans’ posters and performing requests. Through it all, he managed to create one-of-a-kind moments for individual fans in a stadium of 50,000-plus people, as the Deseret News wrote in a review.
“It’s one of the greatest times I’ve ever had,” he said of that show, per Deseret News.
And then, as promised, he came back to the stadium 11 months later — and did two shows.
“People showed up and they showed up twice,” Brooks told reporters at Rice-Eccles Stadium ahead of the first of two shows. “If that is not enough for you to look in the mirror and go ... ‘I don’t know why it’s happening but thank you,’ then I don’t know what needs to hit you in the head to ... realize how lucky you are.”
Brooks also shared that after three decades of touring, rather than becoming “old hat,” these moments of playing for a crowd have become “more and more precious” as he’s gotten older.
Overall, he said, he hits the stage every single time with the same goal: For fans to leave the show “loving each other more than when they came.”
“We’re probably the most divided we’ve ever been, but out there ... you’ll see people that if they were in a room together probably wouldn’t be getting along, but they don’t know each other, they just know that they love to sing,” he said at the time. “And there they are with their arms around each other … singing ‘Friends in Low Places’ or ‘Two Pina Coladas.’
“If we could focus on more of what we have in common than what scares us,” he continued. “For the last 20 years, I don’t know why, we focus more on what scares us than what we can potentially do together. That’s kind of where we’re at. And my prayer to God is that we just don’t kill each other before we figure that out, and get back to the great things that we could be doing if we did unite.”