Garth Brooks' daughters grew up about as far away from stardom as can be, despite having
celebrity parents. Now the Brooks girls are all making their mark and spreading joy to
others in their own unique ways. And, as is clear by looking at them, Garth Brooks' daughters
have grown up to be gorgeous.
Before he was a star, Garth Brooks met and married his first wife, Sandy Mahl. The college
sweethearts were married and had three daughters before they divorced in 2000.
According to Rick Mitchell's book Garth Brooks: One of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House, Brooks
and Mahl had planned to wait a few years before having their first child, but, while "practicing"
on vacation in Maine, Mahl became pregnant with their eldest, Taylor Mayne Pearl Brooks,
named after James Taylor, Minnie Pearl, and the state where she was conceived.
Taylor was born at Nashville's Baptist Hospital on July 8, 1992. Second daughter August Anna
came almost two years later in 1994, with the youngest Brooks daughter, Allie Colleen,
following in 1996. As Brooks once told Billboard,
"I feel God put me down here to play music, but it's very evident to see because of the
baby, God put me down here to be a father also."
Garth Brooks took an early retirement from the music industry at the height of his career
in 2001 and pretty much started over after his divorce from Sandy Mahl. He made his daughters
his ultimate priority. The star told Us Weekly,
"I just said goodbye to music, got divorced, moved back to Oklahoma and left Nashville."
Living with all three daughters in a one-bathroom bunkhouse on his ranch, Brooks realized that
he didn't actually know that much about them. But the dedicated father was prepared to dig
in and find out everything. He packed school lunches, supervised chores, and literally
became a soccer dad. He's since shared his belief that every celebrity, if given the
choice between work and family, would make the same decision.
Brooks would later say on The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
"I think if everybody was allowed that luxury, I think 99 percent of us parents would take
it."
Years later, Allie contended in interviews that despite what you might think, she really
didn't know what it was like to grow up with a celebrity parent, because Brooks was so
present in her life as a dad.
"You know my parents were phenomenal in the way that they shut down everything to raise
us."
"So there was no showbiz about the house at all?”
"No, not at all."
Garth Brooks' daughter Allie divulged on the Children of Song podcast that the Brooks kids
had a pretty unique arrangement after their parents' separation, eventually settling into
a system that allowed them to spend time with both of their parents every day.
Brooks backed up the story in an interview with The Tennessean, saying,
"They saw both their parents in the morning and both parents in the evening and for 14
years. That's how we ran it because we knew it was right for those kids. If you did what
was right for the kids, you were going to do what was right for you. It was simple."
Garth Brooks wasn't the only one who made a vow to Trisha Yearwood when the couple wed
in 2005. As he explained on The Kelly Clarkson Show, all three of his daughters also donned
white dresses and "wed" Yearwood that day.
"They exchanged rings and said vows to each other, because I told them, 'If something
happens to me, you've got to take care of the queen; you've got to take care of Miss
Yearwood.'"
Brooks asking his daughters to look after his second wife if anything happened to him
might have been a tense conversation, but, by the time the lovebirds were ready to get
married, it seemed Yearwood had become a natural part of the family.
Youngest daughter Allie had a response that was about as casual as could be.
"It was the youngest, Allie, that said, 'We've got your back, bra strap!'"
With no children of her own, an inexperienced Yearwood was thrown into the situation of
being a "bonus mom" to Garth Brooks' daughters. But she's done well. Her relationship with
each of the girls is a little different, but she told Marlo Thomas that her job is to be
a "third voice" and to offer the advantage of being raised by three parents.
"They have a mom, so my job is to, you know, not be their best friend, and not be the big
disciplinarian. I kind of fit somewhere in the middle. I'm a third voice. I'm a third
parent in their life.”
And Garth Brooks agrees that the situation worked out well for his daughters. He told
Fox News,
"They got the right amount of their mom in them, the right amount of me in them, and
the right amount of Trisha's influence as well."
In July 2013, Garth Brooks shared that his middle daughter, August, had given birth to
a baby girl named Karalynn, his first granddaughter. That same year, after graduating from Owasso
High School, the new mother started her studies at the University of Oklahoma.
The Brooks family seemed over the moon about the baby's arrival, especially Grandpa Garth.
Brooks told Kicks 105.5 that "Baby K" is a pure joy and "the glue that holds the whole
family together." He also praised his daughter for being a phenomenal mother, saying,
"No offense to my mom or Trisha Yearwood's mom, or Sandy's mom. I'm not sure any of them
could hold a candle to my daughter. I think she was made to be a mom."
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood have a history of working with the charity Habitat for Humanity,
but the couple has also made hands-on homebuilding a family activity.
Two of Brooks' daughters, Taylor and Allie, also took an active role in the Habitat for
Humanity Carter Work Project in 2019.
While the girls hadn't been old enough to work on previous Habitat for Humanity builds,
Brooks told Taste of Country that they had prepared for the work, getting their feet
wet with not-so-small construction projects on the family property. He taught them to
bend rebar, transport concrete, and even construct a bridge. The proud father said,
"They come out here now and they just pick up hammers and go to work."
It had to have felt good for the young ladies to make such a difference with family by their
side. Allie said on Instagram,
"We built with love and we are so proud. Thank you @habitatforhumanity for an experience
I will feel in my heart (and my body) for a long, long time."
Garth Brooks' daughter Allie may have to think for a minute to choose just one favorite song
of her dad's — turns out it's "When You Come Back to Me Again" — but she knows exactly
which one she hates with a passion.
"What'd you expect, my man, 'Friends in Low Places'? I hate that song. So much."
As Allie discussed in an appearance on The Bobby Bones Show, you can only imagine the
pick-up lines she's had to suffer through from guys trying to use her dad's music to
flirt with her, with "Friends in Low Places" being a capital offender. Unsurprisingly,
the idea of her dad's lyrics being used by strangers trying to hit on her frankly freaks
her out.
However, Allie told Children of Song that the best musical experience she remembers
having with her dad didn't actually have anything to do with any of his own iconic tunes. She
shared that the main experience she's had singing with her father doesn't have anything
to do with his career, or hers. It's hanging out and singing songs like Elton John's "Crocodile
Rock."
"Getting to see Dad as something other than a cowboy was pretty cool. And just seeing
him get excited and do all those 'la la las' and everything. Everything about it, I just
loved it."
Garth Brooks' daughter Taylor Mayne Pearl Brooks is a relatively private person, but
her father did share in his A&E documentary that his firstborn is a courageous person
who would, quote, "trade her life for someone she doesn't know."
That selflessness may have contributed to her decision to attend school at Nashville's
Vanderbilt University after graduating from Oklahoma State. She reportedly studied history
at OSU from 2010 to 2016, and graduated with a Masters Degree in Theology from Vanderbilt
on May 18, 2020.
With Taylor all grown up and chasing her own dreams, we expect her graduate school studies
made her father proud. Speaking about all of his daughters, he told People in 2015,
"You can introduce them to the Lord, teach them manners, teach them to believe in themselves,
but the truth is, they're going to be who they're going to be."
Garth Brooks' youngest daughter, Allie, and boyfriend Jonathan Roberts attended a Garth
Brooks concert at the Forum in Los Angeles on July 28, 2017. The event also happened
to be on the night of her 21st birthday — but wait. It gets even better.
While it must have been memorable for her dad to lead the crowd in a "Happy Birthday"
sing-a-long, what came next for Allie was the surprise of a lifetime.
Just offstage, Roberts dropped to one knee, presented her with a ring, and asked her to
marry him as Brooks sang "She's Every Woman" on stage. A tearful Allie can be heard in
a video accepting enthusiastically.
After a yearlong engagement, the couple later wed on October 6th, 2018. And as seen on Allie's
Instagram page, her dog was dolled up in a sparkly tutu for her wedding. She wrote in
the caption,
"My day was perfect."
Blame it on her roots. While all of Garth Brooks' daughters enjoy music in general,
only one of them is following in his footsteps with music as a career path. As Brooks said
on The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
"The baby actually has been bitten by the bug."
He's talking about his daughter Allie, who loves to play the guitar and sing. Praising
her talent, the proud papa called her a gifted musician who can run laps around him when
it comes to talent.
From writing poetry as a young child to penning what she called "silly songs about boys" as
a pre-teen, the youngest Brooks girl said in an interview with the Children of Song
podcast that she knew she wanted to be a musician since around age 8.
She's following not only in her father's footsteps but also in the musical legacy of her grandmother,
Colleen Carrol, for whom she was named. In fact, her stage name is Allie Colleen instead
of Brooks.
Committing to family first and halting everything to raise his girls was "the greatest thing
that ever happened" to Garth Brooks, as he told The View. And we're sure he hopes his
daughters feel the same way. He told Closer Weekly that he was completely in love with
his daughters to the point that he flat-out worshipped them. According to the mega-successful
country music singer,
"They can see it in my face when they see me or surprise me somewhere."
Now that the girls are older and have gone off to college and have started to build their
own families, we're sure Brooks and his girls look forward to shared times, though he admitted
to Entertainment Tonight that getting them all together only happens now about three
days a year on Father's Day, his birthday, and Christmas. According to him, those are
just about the only days that the whole family comes together around one table anymore. Seems
like perfect fodder for a forlorn and wistful country song, if you ask us.
It's probably because Garth Brooks' daughters tend to live private lives, but the country
music star likely wasn't the only one surprised to see his ex-wife and all three girls speaking
out about his life and career in a two-night A&E special Garth Brooks: The Road I'm On.
The special featured exclusive dialogues with country music colleagues and the people closest
to the star — his family.
Speaking about the revealing documentary, Brooks told Fox News,
"The blessing is they're going to get to the truth. The curse is they're going to get to
the truth."
He said it was interesting to get his daughters' perspectives, and he learned a lot, though
he didn't know the girls were being interviewed and never thought they would actually sit
down in front of the camera.
For his part, documentary director Al Syzmanski said he came away from the project with a
new level of respect for Brooks, but it sounds like he was equally as impressed with the
Brooks girls. He told Multichannel News, "They are un-frickin-believable." We think so, too.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more List videos about your favorite
country music stars are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so
you don't miss a single one.