“I think he has the greatest neck of a giraffe to even come over here after seven years. Was he in a coma?”
An angry Liveline caller has said that country music superstar Garth Brooks has the “neck of a giraffe” to return to Ireland over seven years after the infamous “five-in-a-row” fiasco.
The caller, Michael, told Joe Duffy on Tuesday that he bought tickets for friends the last time the musician visited the country in 2014, but said that if someone gave him “a free ticket tomorrow to see that man” he “wouldn’t go”.
“I think he has the greatest neck of a giraffe to even come over here after seven years. Was he in a coma? I tell you one thing. The Irish people are very, very naive over here,” he said.
“Seven years, I’ll tell you why he has a hard neck. You can check this out, last year, he cancelled most of his concerts because of this virus in America and all over the world. He couldn’t be short of money, this is pension money for him.
“I don’t know why and how they get away with this.”
Michael added that he believes Brooks should have played the originally scheduled two nights and came back to do the other three gigs, saying that he thinks the singer is “absolutely money-grabbing”.
“I’m not a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen, but the guy has come over here over the years and has never failed,” he continued.
Presenter Joe Duffy interjected to tell him that “no one is forcing him” to purchase a ticket to the gigs, which are now likely to take place in 2022.
He responded: “But what about the fans? It’s like a slap in the face.”
Another caller and avid fan of Garth Brooks, Suzie, added that she is a fan and “it’s not a slap in the face”.
Michael replied: “Did you buy tickets before and did you not feel like this is a bit of a joke? – to wait seven years to come back, I’m telling you why he’s coming back, and I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t care what the nation says, he’s coming back because he cancelled his concerts all over America.”
When quizzed by Duffy if he had watched Brooks’ performance at Joe Biden’s inauguration, Michael added: “Ah, he was awful. I watched that Joe and I fell asleep.”
“I think he [Biden] was also asleep,” Duffy added.
“Did you see one of the security nudging Joe Biden to wake him up?”, Michael concluded.
However, regardless of Michael’s thoughts on the musician, it seems the musician still has some ‘Friends in Low Places’ in Ireland Suzie, who purchased tickets back in 2014 and also attended a 1997 Brooks concert in Ireland, said that she would “absolutely” be going to the new run of gigs in 2022, should they go ahead.
Fiona, another Brooks, fan told the programme that she was “delighted” and has been “driving down the road and screaming” following the announcement.
Fiona won tickets to the 2014 gig on the Ryan Tubridy show and has also seen Brooks perform in Las Vegas.
“We had a ball, he was the nicest man,” Fiona, who met Brooks after the gig, said.
When asked if Brooks had mentioned Ireland during their conversation she said “of course” and that he was “very disappointed” and “sorry it didn’t work out”.
Although, in spite of his many supporters, Michael is not the only one who has had a negative reaction to the possible return of the country singer as the Croke Park Residents Association is already up in arms over the possible gig.
Patrick Gates, chairperson of the Croke Park Residents Association sounded a note of caution on Today with Claire Byrne on Tuesday.
“For the residents, it’s not really about who plays in Croke Park but how it’s managed, particularly outside the stadium and in the residential streets,” Gates began.
“We do suffer from quite a lot of disruption. Croke Park just don’t seem to be able to manage the external environment for large events so we do have a problem with that.
“They have a licence for three concerts,” Gates continues. “We don’t really have a problem with who it is, whether it’s Garth Brooks or others, but we do have a problem if it is more than three concerts.”
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