I will drop to my knees for those 400,000 - Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks says that he will “crawl, swim, fly” to get to Ireland if he has to and “get on his knees to beg” Enda Kenny to “find a solution to GarthGate.
The Country megastar, who thousands of Cavan fans were thrilled to get tickets to, some queing for days, says that up to ten days ago that he had no idea about licensing problems with two of the Croke park gigs and that he is “under a cloud right now”.
“We’re hoping that joy will eventually shine for anybody who likes Garth Brooks music.”
The controversey surrounding the five Dublin gigs featured heavily a press conference today where Brooks said he was unaware of licensing problems but that the Irish people should not be embarrassed, as it was claimed by an Irish interviewer, but that he thought of the country as “home”.
The father of three said that he himself had no solution to the impasse which sees 160,000 people - the population of the two later gigs combined - go without tickets.
“I’ve never been treated like anything else other than a king by Ireland and its people,” he said.
“Up to ten days ago, two weeks ago, it was nothing but love... Then I got the call, ‘we’re okay on three, we’re going to have to figure out the other two...’
“I wish I could tell you I saw it coming, I didn’t.”
Garth says that he wanted to treat all of his fans fairly and that is always the way that Garth Brooks concerts have operated, he said:
“Now what do I do with 160,000 people and why are they treated differently than the 240,000 people and now so it’s just kind of put on my side?
“With a simple yes, you can make 400,000 people happy!”
Remarking that the powers that be are not here, he said:
“Create your laws, create your guidelines but don’t sell a show to people and get their hopes up that you’re going to cancel... that’s not the way to treat people.”
Speaking directly to Enda Kenny, he said: “I will crawl, swim, I will fly over this weekend. I will drop onto my knees for those 400,000 people and beg.”