His is the one and only country music album I have ever purchased. I love him and I love his shit. I would be overjoyed to see him in concert as well.

Both of those ladies are awesome, as are Trisha Yearwood and Reba MacIntyre. But there's actually a good tradition of strong women in country. I mean, think about Dolly, who was a childfree breadwinner before it was even a thing. I'd actually say country has regressed considerably post-2001ish.

Can I just say YES to all of this! His sister played in his band for awhile, and she is a lesbian, so he's been in the LGBT equality camp for awhile. And he generally had very progressive beliefs. AND, back in the late 90's for a minute when I was in the publishing business in Nashville, I ran into him at an industry…

Times like this show you who you can count on, for sure.

Not sure precisely what the other commenter was referring to, but in one of his songs from the early to mid-nineties he references being "Free to love anyone we choose/when the world's big enough for all different views/when we all can worship from our own kind of pews/we shall be free". He's no Toby Keith, that's…

It really is. And in those last pre-internet years, the pushback couldn't have stretched very far. Our basic cable was just starting to flaunt the country music channel; I can't imagine many outlets for wide discussion about what he was doing. (Aaand now we're totally off-topic, but I'm remembering some ladies making…

Maybe he might make some type of statement during his performance in St. Louis (with the conservative fan base). Like a dedication to Mike Brown, that requires his fans to give a moment of silence (I might just be dreaming here).

just wanted to add, he does a TON of stuff for children's hospitals. Our local one has a music studio for the kids that he donated, plus he came to visit the kids unannounced one time my daughter was in. The nurses told me he's a pretty frequent visitor, but doesn't tip off the press or anything. (I did check the…

It's interesting to look back and think about how political of an artist he was. I don't think he ever was defined as such, but those positions taken couldn't have been just accidents of songwriting and video composition.

Thank you Garth Brooks for restoring a little bit of hope for my fellow white people. I have found that a lot of my friends on facebook are closet racists (well, I guess not so closeted anymore) and I have been horrified. Respect.

That doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

I remember liking him in high school and being surprised at the lack of the stereotypical country fan at his concerts. Not a rebel flag in sight.

Garth is a legend. He's been a prominent supporter of gay rights (his sister is a lesbian) in the front of some pretty hideous criticism from country fans. Songs like 'We shall be free' (also shared here) show that he's one of those Christians who think the love one another stuff is more important than the eye for an…

See, I guess I know lots of country music fans, and the ones of roughly my age (I was a tween when he became popular) and older are actually kind of aware of all this, at least in a vague way. The ones who don't care for his politics just ignore them because, well, as you said: he's an amazing singer.

Civil Unrest is exactly what this is. Exactly. He fucking nailed it.

I remember when Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were pretty much the only country music stars to support the Dixie Chicks when they criticized Bush. That alone made me love them more.

I'm guessing his heart is in the right place on this one, considering: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Shall_….

Do you remember his song, We Shall Be Free? It's on Vimeo, but it won't let me link.

He's an Obama supporter who's performed at gay rights marches and written songs about what the world would be like if there wasn't any bigotry or poverty. And he's pretty much always been public about that sort of thing, even back when I was a kid and he was at the height of his career.

I think he definitely means to be an ally. Is he doing the right thing? I don't really know. But this isn't an attempt to pander to conservative fans. I mean, Brooks performed at Obama's inauguration, which is not really something you do if you want to court the Tea Party crowd.