Garth Brooks 1997 to now: Much has changed, but not fans’ adoration

The date was Nov. 12, 1997.

Bill Clinton was president. Gas cost $1.20 a gallon. Princess Diana had died two months earlier, and Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind” was in constant loop on the radio.

It was a Wednesday night, and 11,000 people in and around Wichita were setting their VCRs to record “Dharma & Greg” and “Beverly Hills 90210” because they weren’t going to be home.

They were going to see Garth.

November 1997 was the last time country star Garth Brooks came to Wichita, and back then – just like now – he wasn’t dropping by for a single show. His visit was a five-night event that drew five sell-out crowds to the Kansas Coliseum and was the biggest entertainment event Wichita had seen in years. When it was over, 55,000 people had earned the right to say they were there – and some of them were there all five nights.

Now, nearly two decades later, Wichita is getting a chance to relive the Garth-mania of 1997. The singer, who famously retired from the music industry in 2001, announced his comeback last year. He put out an album, “Man Against Machine,” and announced a world tour with his wife, popular country singer Trisha Yearwood. The tour has been on the road since September of last year, setting sales records across the country.

In late October, Brooks announced the addition of one, then two, then six shows at Intrust Bank Arena, all of which quickly sold out. The first show is at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3.

It’s been 18 years since that last string of shows – long enough that memories are kind of fuzzy, but not so long that some of the same people aren’t just as excited this time around. (Even though “Man Against Machine,” Brooks’ first studio album since 2001, has failed to produce any big hits.)

Following are the recollections of two people who were there in 1997, and one who was almost there. All three will be at Intrust Bank Arena at least once when Brooks makes his big return.

Jim Sachs: Deja vu

In 1997, Jim Sachs was a 34-year-old assistant director of ticketing at the 10,000-seat Kansas Coliseum, then Wichita’s main music venue.

He’d dealt with big events at his past jobs in the ticketing offices at Wichita State University and at Arkansas State University. He’d even helped with sales for a Garth Brooks show at Arkansas State.

But that was nothing compared to Wichita in 1997, said Sachs, 52, who now is director of ticketing for Intrust Bank Arena.

Sachs remembers when tickets to the 1997 show first went on sale. People across the city stood in line on a Saturday morning at the Coliseum box office and at Dillons stores. He saw people stand in line for hours, buy the maximum six tickets they were allowed, then get right back in line to buy more. Eight hours later, five shows were sold out.

“It was so different in the sense that there was no Internet back 18 years ago,” Sachs said. “I remember the lines of people wrapped around the Dillons stores and the outlets and us having to determine how many shows we were going to do.”

Brooks was the first country artist, Sachs remembers, to put on such a fully produced concert, and he was so engaging. The fans in the crowd knew all the words to the songs.

“I worked all the shows, and it was amazing the way he personalized each show,” Sachs said.

When he heard that Brooks was planning a redo at the arena, Sachs admits he wondered if the scene could possibly be repeated. This time, he wasn’t watching lines of ticket buyers at Dillons stores. He was in the office watching virtual waiting rooms full of ticket buyers.

Two hours later, it was deja vu. All 65,000 tickets were gone.

“It’s just amazing that the longevity is there,” Sachs said. “It’s still the same excitement for him 18 years later.”

Alexa Coker: No ER this time

Alexa Coker was an 8-year-old third-grader in 1997, and her dad had gotten her a special gift: tickets to Garth Brooks’ opening night concert at the Kansas Coliseum.

She was so excited.

But before the concert started, she had gymnastics practice. She remembers trying to do a back bend from a standing position. She remembers hearing a snap.

Coker never made it to the concert. Instead, she and her father spent the evening in the emergency room. The tickets went unused.

Coker remembers that her grandma tried to pull some strings and get the tickets signed by Brooks, at least, but that didn’t happen. A Wichita Eagle photographer took a picture of Coker, a blue cast covering her tiny arm. The picture and her sad story ran in the paper.

“I remember a lot of my teachers said something to me, and I got plenty of cards with extra newspaper clippings that people had sent to me,” Coker said.

Today, Coker is a 26-year-old labor and delivery nurse at Wesley Medical Center, and when she heard Brooks was returning, she saw her chance for a re-do. She stayed up after she finished an overnight shift at Wesley and tried to buy tickets. But it was “a cluster trying to order those online,” she said. Coker didn’t get tickets.

Later, her mom and aunt surprised her with tickets to the Dec. 6 show.

“He’s such a great entertainer,” Coker said. “Anytime you hear his music, he just gets you up. He’s fun to listen to.”

Chase Locke: First concert, best concert

When Chase Locke was 9, he recalls being kind of surprised by the Garth Brooks mania in his house.

His parents, Chris and Alison, were hard-working ranchers in Butler County. They didn’t go to concerts.

But when tickets to the 1997 Garth Brooks shows went on sale, it was pandemonium.

“I remember two of my aunts and my mom were all kind of coordinating getting on the phones,” he said. “I remember my mom calling and hanging up and calling and hanging up until she finally got through, and then everyone was excited that we were able to get tickets.”

Chase’s parents took him and his siblings to the concert – Chase’s first.

His parents bought him an autographed glossy 8-by-10 photo of Brooks, which hung in his room most of his childhood. He didn’t understand until he was older that Brooks hadn’t personally autographed it, he said with a laugh.

But it was the vibe in the Coliseum that night that stuck with him.

“What I remember most isn’t him but just the energy in the room,” Locke said. “It was so exciting, and it was such a positive, feel-good experience. I remember feeling that at a young age, and I think that’s what stuck with me.”

Locke remained a Brooks fan throughout his life and even went to see him when he performed a series of shows to open Kansas City’s Sprint Center in 2007.

When he learned about the Wichita shows, Locke said, he saw a chance to repay his parents for the experience and bought them tickets to see one of the Dec. 5 shows. Locke will attend another night, too, with a group of friends.

Brooks’ songs have been woven into important moments in Locke’s life, he said. He remembers singing “Friends in Low Places” with his high school buddies at senior prom, and he and a former girlfriend chose a Brooks song as their song.

“I was terribly excited, and just to be able to experience that, and now as an adult get to experience again with friends and family in a different way,” Locke said, “it’s going to be fun.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Garth Brooks 1997 to now: Much has changed, but not fans’ adoration."