In one of the biggest moments of Garth Brooks’s career, the country music superstar made sure to thank his current wife… and his future wife.
As crazy as that sentence might sound, it’s the truth. Garth was arguably the biggest star of the genre in the 1990s, and that was made official at the 1999 Academy Country Music Awards. During the proceedings of the event, Garth Brooks was crowned with the “Artist of the Decade Award” at the annual awards show shining a light on country music.
During his acceptance speech, he rattled off all the usual suspects that entertainers do when they win: his manager, his brother, the head of his record label, among others. Then he looked at his then wife, Sandy, who was sitting in the front row. The pair met in college and were married for 15 years before they split up in 2001. But they were still together during the 34th annual ACM Awards, and he thanked her for all the support:
“I’ve got to turn to my wife, Sandy, and say thank you for a wonderful decade. Thank you very much. I want you to know that in my lifetime, not just the ’90s, in my lifetime, my three greatest achievements that I’ve ever been a part of are Taylor, August and Allie. Thank you for my three girls.”
What a sweet moment.
And the rest of the acceptance speech would be just same old, same old if we weren’t armed with hindsight. Just a couple of sentences later, Brooks turned his attention to none other than Trisha Yearwood. He and the “She’s In Love With The Boy” singer first met in the late ’80s at a Nashville demo session, and evidently hit it off.
Throughout the ’90s, both Garth and Trisha helped one another out musically. They often collaborated, and even provided backing vocals on each other’s albums. All of that work together throughout the decade led to Brooks thanking Yearwood during his acceptance speech:
“When I think of the ’90s, the friendships that I’ve gained through the 90s, when you talk about artist to artist… as far as a partner in the ’90s, music wise, Trisha Yearwood, I can’t thank you anymore for the friendship you’ve shown me this decade.”
Well… that’s a little awkward…
For reference, that ACM Awards took place in May of 1999. Garth Brooks and Sandy Mahl would go on to announce their divorce in late 2000, and finalize it in 2001. Interestingly enough, Brooks and Trisha Yearwood were then married in 2005. So yeah… Garth managed to thank his current (and soon-to-be ex) wife and his future wife in the same acceptance speech.
Optically, that doesn’t look all that great. But things seemed to end rather amicably between Sandy and Garth (much of it was attributed to him being gone from his family because of his career). So much so that when it came time to get the blessing to pop the question to Trisha, Garth asked Yearwood’s parents, his own three daughters, and even his ex-wife Sandy (yeah, he really did) for permission to propose to Trisha in the spring of 2005.
Garth truly is one of one.
