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10th Jun 2018

Garth Brooks confirms that he’s 100% willing to return and play gigs in Ireland

Paul Moore

Big news for Garth Brooks fan.

We all remember the ‘five or none’ fiasco that even saw Carlos Eugenio Garcia de Alba Zepede, Mexican Ambassador to Ireland, calling the Lord Mayor of Dublin to offer his assistance in preventing the cancellation of five Garth Brooks concerts.

Yep, it was one of the most bizarre sagas in recent Irish history.

Since those famous cancellations, various rumours have persisted that have linked the country and western star with a return to Ireland but during a recent Q&A, Brooks has said that he has”100% made the opportunity available to the people that make the decision in Ireland, to get those shows back up and get them running again. If and when they say yes, I will be there.”

The singer has made no secret of his wish to come back and play a few more Irish dates and during a recent interview at CMA Fest, an Irish lady named Karen got an opportunity to ask him a question about returning to Ireland.

After a P.A announcement interrupted her original question, Karen asked the singer about the whole fiasco and whether or not he’d come back to Ireland for a few more gigs.

When asked about his upcoming world tour, any potential European dates and a return to Ireland, here’s what he said.

“When it comes to Ireland, first of all, when that cancellation happened, it was probably the most devastating thing that ever happened in my career. That’s probably the saddest moment of my musical career- what happened in Dublin. That happened probably after the coolest moment in my musical career – selling 400,000 tickets in one city, that’s very sweet.”

He adds: “To have to refund all those people their money, it broke my heart. Not being allowed to play all five, I had to pick two of the five to cancel and I said ‘screw that, I’m not going to do that to those people.’ It was either all or none, when it  became none, it was like ‘come over here (Ireland) again and I’ve been lucky to see the Irish flag at every concert that we do here (U.S.) and I so thank them for travelling.”

With regards to the potential of a few new dates in Ireland, Brooks said:  “I will tell you this, I believe that things that start should finish. I have 100% made the opportunity available to the people that make the decision in Ireland, to get those shows back up and get them running again. If and when they say yes, I will be there.”

Here’s the footage in full.

Thanks to JOE reader Shaun McGonagle for sending this in.

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