Garth Brooks Says Opening Night Never Feels Routine – Get Your Tickets Now!

No matter how many times Garth Brooks launches a tour, opening night still gets to him.

As Brooks prepares to launch the Blame It All On My Roots Tour with back-to-back shows Aug. 21-22 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, he admits the first show still comes with nerves.

"What is it?" Brooks asks. "Is it the expectation? The nerves? The wanting to make a good first impression?

"For me, it's about tearing the roof off as fast as you can and letting the sunshine in!" he continues, laughing. "The quicker you can get past the nerves, the more fun you are going to have.”

Those nerves don't disappear after the first show, he says. They just change shape.

"Opening night has its own nerves…the nerves you would expect,” he says. “But once opening night is behind you, then the nerves of making it a different show without letting someone down the next night take over. How do you make each night its own? Then how do you close it…you know?”

For Brooks, the first few moments of a show tell him almost everything he needs to know.

"Just like you can tell what kind of night you are going to have in the first verse of the first song, you can tell what kind of stay you are going to have on the opening night of each city,” he says. “Both you and the crowd are hungry to communicate your feelings to each other.”

Brooks has built his career on trusting that connection with his fans.

"I think I judge a crowd's happiness by how loud they sing,” he says. “I think they judge my happiness by how much fun I am having. I always have more fun than the crowd does!”

At its heart, Brooks says, touring has always been about one simple moment.

"When I go to a concert as a fan, all I want is that split second of eye contact so I can say, 'thank you'…for what their music has done for my life,” he explains. “And as an artist, I am looking for that eye contact so I can say 'thank you' for my life, my kids’ lives, all of our lives. We, as a band and crew, have to be the most fortunate people on the planet.”

Tickets for the first two shows of the Blame It All On My Roots Tour — Aug. 21-22 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis — go on sale at 10 a.m. ET Friday, July 17, at Ticketmaster.com/garthbrooks or through the Ticketmaster app.