Sunday, Nov. 11: ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’

Kyle Almond

Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007, Garth Brooks played his seventh of nine concerts at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., what he jokingly calls his 2007 World Tour. Brooks remarked throughout the night how touched he was by the crowd’s enthusiasm on a Sunday night.

“I don’t have to get up and go to work tomorrow, I can stay as long as you want me to,” said Brooks.

Later, after a particularly exuberant ovation, Brooks commented that “A Sunday night in Kansas City is like a Saturday night anywhere else.”

The packed stadium, with a capacity of 18,500, did not leave its feet for the more than two-hour-long show. The audience sang along with songs ranging from “The Fever” to “Shameless,” “Friends in Low Places” and “Wolves.” It seemed the audience knew them all.

Prior to a duet with his wife and opening act, Trisha Yearwood, Brooks asked her why all of her promotional T-shirts left off the “hyphen Brooks.” She replied to the effect that it just didn’t fit, to which he responded, “Don’t give me that, they can put Ben Roethlisberger’s name on a jersey.”

Yearwood proceeded to point out a fan’s sign that read “Mr. Brooks.”

That was just one of the many times Brooks reacted to signs from the audience. In addition to playing requests that were written on signs, he personally introduced himself to a fan in the front row with a sign reading “All Nine Nights,” and he teased the bearer of a sign that simply read “Jimmy,” a tribute to Brooks’ long time fiddler, Jimmy Mattingly.

Throughout the night, the audience booed only one time, and that was when bass player and Topeka native Mark Greenwood showed his true colors by revealing a shirt identifying him as a graduate of the University of Kansas.

Brooks initially closed by performing “The Dance,” but the audience brought him back for an encore which consisted of 10 songs. Five of the songs were his own; he also performed “Piano Man,” “Please Come to Boston,” “Rocket Man,” “80 Proof Tearstopper” and closed, this time for good, with “American Pie.”

Many fans were still cheering minutes after Brooks left the stage. Most probably hoped that he would come back to Kansas City if he ever comes out of retirement, again.