That’s a very selective version of “bigger”, given that they have still sold more albums overall, and they did so at a time when the US population was about a third lower than today.
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I don’t know about trans people specifically but he has been a supporter of gay rights for a few decades.
Brooks has long voiced support for the LGBTQ+ community. In 1992, he released “We Shall Be Free,” a song denouncing homophobia, racism, pollution, financial inequality, and religious intolerance. Its lyrics state: “When we’re free to love anyone we choose / When this world’s big enough for all different views / When we all can worship from our own kind of pew / Then we shall be free, yeah.”
Brooks credits his deceased lesbian half-sister Betsy Smittle with developing his views on gay rights and same-sex marriage. In 2000, he performed at the Equality Rights benefit concert for Gay Rights at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C… There, he performed a duet with gay pop star George Michael to Michael’s song, “Freedom ’90.”
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This ain’t comin’ from no prophet,
Just an ordinary man.
When I close my eyes,
I see the way this world shall be
When we all walk hand in hand.
When the last child cries for a crust of bread,
When the last man dies for just words that he said,
When there’s shelter over the poorest head,
We shall be free.
When the last thing we notice is the color of the skin,
And the first thing we look for is the beauty within;
When the skies and the oceans are clean again,
Then we shall be free.
We shall be free, we shall be free.
Stand straight, walk proud,
'Cause we shall be free.
When we’re free to love anyone we choose,
When this world’s big enough for all different views,
When we all can worship from our own kind of pew,
Then we shall be free.
We shall be free, we shall be free
Have a little faith, hold out,
'Cause we shall be free.
And when money talks for the very last time,
And nobody walks a step behind;
When there’s only one race,
And that’s mankind, then we shall be free.
We shall be free ,we shall be free
Stand straight, (walk proud, )
Have a little faith, (hold out;)
We shall be free.
We shall be free, we shall be free,
(Stand straight, ) stand straight,
(Have a little faith, ) walk proud,
'Cause we shall be free.
From 1992. He was woke before there was woke.
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(offtopic: we were discussing in another thread how Rage Against The Machine’s song Wake Up is an origin for ‘woke’ as a phrase, and that came out in '92. So Garth Brooks was woke at just the right time. Maybe he inspired RATM? 
)
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That’s great! 
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This puts an origin with Leadbelly’s Scottsboro Boys in 1938
The series is worth a listen
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Came here to post that very song. My sister-in-law worked for Brooks’s accounting firm at the time it came out. She was very impressed by his attitude even then. We’d spend Friday nights playing darts at a very seedy bar on the outskirts of Nashville and she always played it on the jukebox at least once. And it always got an overwhelmingly positive response.
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To me, that’s the interesting thing.
By their definition a lot of their favorite people and things were woke for decades and they never boycotted or threw out or shot things up until they were told to be outraged.
We’re the sheep for social distancing, masking, getting vaccinated, etc… yet they are as easily manipulated/controlled as they believe us to be.
Go figure.
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Back when it wasn’t OK to wear your hate like a flag, people actually harbored less hate. I clearly remember when people didn’t walk around saying bigoted things without being called out for it, and stupid demonstrations like machine-gunning a case of beer would have rednecks mad about wasting beer.
Now I believe the level of current hate among the people who find it fulfilling to hate, distrust, or fear someone because of REASONS grows with exercise because they’ve been permitted to exercise it.
If a person is not raging at another for being minutely “other,” one probably sympathizes with them for being far more alike than different.
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Garth and his wife, country music star Trisha Yearwood, are long-standing LGBT allies. His late sister, musician Betsy Smittle, was an out lesbian.
No worries here, they’re good people.
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Hooray! I like his music so I’m glad it doesn’t have to be a guilty pleasure.
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I’m not a country music fan, but I attended the free concert he did at Central Park in 1997 (Free is free).
He put on a great show, I was impressed. Showmanship is always appreciated.
Nice knowing he is good people too.
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Absolutely! The way human societies have always kept bad beliefs in check is by making it clear those beliefs are not okay. When Ogg says something awful, he is told to go sleep in a different cave for a while. It’s always been this way.
As we’re learning, the opposite is also true. If nobody shuts that shit down, people feel more and more free to indulge whatever dark impulses they have and the whole world turns into a Nazi bar.
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