Episode 1
Backstage with Garth Brooks: The Night No One Showed Up
Welcome to the very first episode of Backstage Past, where host Jake McBride draws on more than 30 years of experience in country radio to pull back the curtain on some truly unforgettable moments behind the scenes. In this debut episode, Jake takes us all the way back to his early days as a music director at Alabama 100 in Anniston, Alabama, where a routine call from Capitol Records turned into a hilariously unexpected night with none other than a young Garth Brooks.
Expect icy weather, an empty venue, and a performance for a crowd that consisted mostly of wait staff and police officers—and discover why Garth and his band would never forget this night, lovingly dubbing it “The Policeman’s Ball.” Tune in for a heartfelt and humorous look at the humble beginnings of a country superstar, and the kind of stories only a radio veteran like Jake can deliver.
Transcript
Welcome to Backstage Past.
Speaker A:I'm your host, J.
Speaker A:McBride, and I'll be taking you to the places you've always wondered about.
Speaker A:We'll go backstage onstage, on the bus, and a whole lot more as I give you a glimpse of my over 30 years in country radio.
Speaker A:Let's get started.
Speaker A:So as we get this entire podcast started off Backstage Past, it's kind of ironic that we have to go back and grab a story that happened on at my very first radio station.
Speaker A:But what happened there was interesting, but it really came about, and it took 20 years.
Speaker A:Over 20 years to create this story.
Speaker A:So let me just give you the background.
Speaker A:I'm working at Alabama 100 WH M A F M in Anniston, Alabama.
Speaker A:I had to work my way up to where I was the music director.
Speaker A:Now the music director at these stations.
Speaker A:We were a reporting station, so that meant that we charted or we kept up with our weekly music moves this determined who was number one on the charts and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker A:So it was a really kind of an interesting way, but it was the way it was done back in the day.
Speaker A: and we go to April of, like,: Speaker A:I know it's been a year or two, right?
Speaker A:Been a minute.
Speaker A:So I'm at my desk and I get a phone call from Capitol Records, which is not uncommon.
Speaker A:They would call and say, hey, we're working on this.
Speaker A:Matter of fact, at this point in time, Capitol Records probably had four or five artists that they would call and say, hey, we need to talk about this week's moves on your music chart.
Speaker A:We're hoping that this will go up.
Speaker A:We're hoping that this will go up.
Speaker A:And we'd like to introduce you to this artist or this artist.
Speaker A:And I'm like, okay.
Speaker A:So that.
Speaker A:And Thursday was kind of like my.
Speaker A:My call day.
Speaker A:That was when I took calls from all the different record companies.
Speaker A:So I remember this day where Capitol Records called and they said, hey, we've got a guy that he's got a new album out.
Speaker A:We don't really know how it's going to go, but here's the thing.
Speaker A:He's leaving Nashville.
Speaker A:He's headed south.
Speaker A:He's going to go to Chattanooga.
Speaker A:He's going to go to Atlanta, and then he's going to wind up in Birmingham.
Speaker A:But we have a day to kill.
Speaker A:And you're right there between Atlanta and Birmingham.
Speaker A:Is there any way that you have a venue that we could put this guy in just to sell some product and just to Introduce him to some people.
Speaker A:And I'm like, well, yeah, let me.
Speaker A:Let me call this show Palace.
Speaker A:It was called the Alabama show palace in Oxford, Alabama.
Speaker A:So I called them and I said, hey, I just got a phone call from a Capitol Records, and they've got a guy, he's got his brand new album out and he's going to be doing a little drive through.
Speaker A:This is not going to cost you anything.
Speaker A:They just want to have a place to play.
Speaker A:It looks like it's going to be on Thursday that he'll be coming through.
Speaker A:And they're like going, yeah, Thursday's not really that big of a deal for us.
Speaker A:So, yeah, we'll make that happen.
Speaker A:What's this guy's name?
Speaker A:And I said, well, this is the interesting part.
Speaker A:He doesn't sound very country at all.
Speaker A:Let me look.
Speaker A:And I had to look at my paper.
Speaker A:And I said, his name is Garth Brooks.
Speaker A:And they're like, garth Brooks.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, we're Deep South.
Speaker A:You don't hear a whole lot of people named Garth or you didn't at that point in time, right?
Speaker A:So we're like, okay, we'll do it.
Speaker A:So it comes time for the week of the concert the following week.
Speaker A:They're calling me on Thursday.
Speaker A:So it'll be a week from when they called me when the concert was going to take place at the Alabama Show Palace.
Speaker A:As luck would have it and as Mother Nature would play havoc, that next week, even in April, we got dealt a crazy, crazy ice storm.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:So we're sitting there thinking the whole place is shut down.
Speaker A:It's just like here in northwest Arkansas, when ice hits the ground, everything shuts down.
Speaker A:So the Alabama show palace calls me on that Thursday, and they're like, hey, man, Garth is here and he's setting this stuff up.
Speaker A:I mean, it's.
Speaker A:There's ice on the ground.
Speaker A:We're like, yeah, I know.
Speaker A:So me and another guy from the radio station, we go down to the Alabama show palace that night.
Speaker A:Inside, we see the whole stage is set up with Garth and his stuff.
Speaker A:We have like 12 or 18 different wait staff and about 20 to 25 different police officers.
Speaker A:And that's what's in the Alabama show palace at this point in time.
Speaker A:We set, we wait, we wait.
Speaker A:We wait time for the show to start.
Speaker A:We're sitting there, we have 12, 18 wait staff, me and the other guy from the Rodeo station, and 20 to 25 police officers, and that is it.
Speaker A:So Garth Brooks comes out and he says, hey, guys, man, we've got everything set up.
Speaker A:You guys mind if we play?
Speaker A:And we're like, ah, yeah, that's what you want to do?
Speaker A:That's fine and dandy.
Speaker A:And it was as if Garth Brooks was playing in front of a million people at Central Park.
Speaker A:He gave it his all.
Speaker A:And while we're sitting there listening, of course we're hearing some of these tunes that you might know.
Speaker A:Much too young to feel this damn old if tomorrow never comes not counting you, the Dance.
Speaker A:All of these came off of that original Garth Brooks album, his very first album.
Speaker A:And we're hearing all of these songs that you're still hearing on the radio today.
Speaker A:Timeless.
Speaker A:Then he did something that none of us expected.
Speaker A:He grabbed the, the stool off the stage, got his acoustic guitar, came down on the dance floor and he's sitting there and he goes, anything you guys want to hear?
Speaker A:You want to hear some George Straight?
Speaker A:I know you want to hear some George Straight.
Speaker A:So we're like, yeah.
Speaker A:So he's playing Heartland and all these different things, playing all these George Strait hits.
Speaker A:You want to hear some, you know, maybe some Aaron Tippin, maybe some say, Kirk Shomi.
Speaker A:He starts playing some of the people that influenced him.
Speaker A:And then after about an hour of that, he is, well, you know, I guess I'm done.
Speaker A:And that was that.
Speaker A:We were done.
Speaker A:Not a single person showed up for the show yet.
Speaker A:Garth Brooks performed as if it was jam packed.
Speaker A:So now, in order to make the story really crazy, we fast forward after, you know, he said he was going to retire while his girls were in high school and until they graduated, he would stay retired.
Speaker A:And he did.
Speaker A:He did just what he said he was going to do.
Speaker A:Then shortly after their graduation, he launched, you know, like Garth Brooks 2.0.
Speaker A:During that launch, Garth then called what we call a radio tour of calling.
Speaker A:He then called all these different radio stations, talking about his new album and his new tour and all this kind of stuff, I think his new website, everything.
Speaker A:And he calls the radio station I'm on then, which was Kix 104.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And he goes through the entire process, such a great guy.
Speaker A:And at the end of that interview, I asked him, I said, hey, Garth, I don't know if you remember this, but way back in the very beginning, you were doing a little radio tour and you were going from Atlanta to Birmingham and you stopped in Oxford, Alabama, at the Alabama Show Palace.
Speaker A:And the show was, you know, we had everything going and everything was good.
Speaker A:But then an ice storm came and he said, oh, you're talking about the Policeman's Ball.
Speaker A:And I said, what?
Speaker A:He goes, yeah, that's what.
Speaker A:Me and my band, we still refer to that today as the Policeman's Ball.
Speaker A:He says, you were there.
Speaker A:I'm like, yeah, I was one of the radio guys.
Speaker A:We had two radio.
Speaker A:I know two radio guys, 12 to 18 different wait staff and about 20 to 25 police officers.
Speaker A:I said, yeah, you remember that?
Speaker A:He goes, absolutely.
Speaker A:He said, it's going to be in part of my memoirs when I go and write things and when it's all said and done.
Speaker A:He goes, but you know what?
Speaker A:We had a really great time that night.
Speaker A:Don't you think we had a great time?
Speaker A:And I'm like, you remember playing in front of nobody?
Speaker A:This is a guy that has played in front of millions in Central park, and yet he still remembers that show at the Alabama Show Palace.
Speaker A:And even he and his band have given it a name called the Policeman's Ball.
Speaker A:You talk about.
Speaker A:I was impressed.
Speaker A:I mean, I was blown away in the fact that he says, yeah, we refer to the Policeman's Ball a lot.
Speaker A:He says, in kind of a unique way.
Speaker A:Even when the crowd's kind of down, we always say, well, at least it wasn't the Policeman's Ball.
Speaker A:And there you have it.
Speaker A:Garth Brooks plays in front of the wait staff, two radio staff, and 20, 25 police officers, and it will forevermore live as the Policeman's Ball.
