[APPLAUSE]
Our first guest is a country superstar
who also happens to be one of the nicest guys in the world.
Please welcome the incredible Garth Brooks.
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
Now what's going on, Garth?
It's good to see you.
Hey, man, you're killing it.
This is fun to watch.
Man, I'm trying.
And as a matter of fact, the last time you were here,
you were here in this chair, man.
Did you like hosting?
Yeah man, it was fun.
You know I think Ellen makes it look a lot easier than it is.
Absolutely, 100%.
Now I got to say, because last time you
had the baseball cap on.
You got the baseball cap on now.
Do you have a special occasion for the cowboy hat?
When does the cowboy hat come out?
[LAUGHTER]
You just wear the cowboy hat whenever.
We just did the inauguration.
You wore it there and felt, straw, all
depends on the weather outside kind of thing.
But no, I think just mostly guys like me
mostly just hang out in ball caps.
When we did "Dive Bar" and Blake Shelton flew in
to do the vocal, he shows up in a hoodie, ball cap, Wranglers
and work boots.
And the engineer looks at me.
He goes, did you guys call each other or something?
This is just how we dress out here.
And you know what?
Also speaking of the inauguration, man,
your performance was incredible, man.
That was amazing.
What was that day like?
It was cool.
It was kind of intense.
Inaugurations probably are, but that one
might have been a little more what
you thought it was going to be.
When you got there it was so much love.
Right.
And so cool.
And it felt great.
And Gaga was great.
She kind of knocked the tension off.
She came by the dressing room on her way
out to do the national anthem, and you remember
she was in that big red--
Absolutely.
--thing.
Yeah.
I looked at her.
I said, oh, thank God, because I'd only
brought two changes of clothes and one of them
was that exact same dress.
So I was lucky to see her before I went out.
That would have been embarrassing.
That's awesome man.
It had to be cool to be around all those presidents, too, man.
That was neat.
I don't know if there is a record for this,
but there should be.
Who gets to hug the most presidents
in less than 13 seconds.
I think that would be me.
You won that one?
Well, I'm on there.
That's awesome.
Now also, just switching back.
So you were supposed to host again just earlier,
but Tricia tested positive for COVID and so obviously
y'all had to quarantine.
How is she doing now?
She's doing great.
And I got to tell you, man, I'm not
a guy that believes in pyramids or stars lining up and stuff,
but I do believe in the power of prayer.
Mm-hmm.
And I think the second that everybody
knew that she was facing this thing,
here came all the thoughts and all the prayers, and it worked.
And she's more gorgeous than she's ever been.
She seems to be 100%.
She's real-- she got real at the end there during fatigue.
She got real impatient, really kind of mean and sassy,
and I thought well, she's back to herself.
[APPLAUSE AND LAUGHTER]
But you know what?
Through all of that though, I just--
I really do.
Y'all's love is so amazing.
And she did a post the other day where
she called you Superman because while you
were taking care of her you didn't get sick at all.
Yeah, it was just a weird thing.
We found out that we'd been exposed, but neither one of us
knew if we were positive or not.
And then it snowed here.
And Nashville, when it snows, it just shuts down.
Right.
So there were seven, eight days we couldn't test.
And so when she did end up testing positive,
I thought, well, jeez.
If I haven't got it in six or seven days, and--
we basically did everything together
that you do as husband and wife.
And four tests in I tested negative every time.
I don't know how it happened.
Just happy that I got to be with her through it all.
And we kind of used it to work on ourselves.
Because we were by ourselves for two weeks almost three weeks.
Absolutely.
Which is-- I mean, listen.
These times are special.
We're spending a lot of time together.
And y'all just also celebrated your 15th wedding anniversary.
So how has--
[APPLAUSE]
Yeah, we can clap for that, by the way.
How has spending time in quarantine been for y'all?
Well, I think 99.9% of the people
wouldn't have done what I do, but I thought since we're here
and we ain't got nowhere to go, let's just
attack some of the hardest things over the 15 years
that bugs one of us, right?
Mm-hmm.
And it was like living in a little house, tWitch.
It was like-- you couldn't go anywhere.
So you couldn't walk away from the conversation.
And I thought it was great.
I think we came out on the other end even closer and tighter
than we were when we went in.
But I got to tell you.
Everybody's been asking about her and asking how she's doing.
I think she can answer your question
and answer everybody's question if I have
her come in here for a minute.
Come here, beautiful.
Absolutely.
Give it up, Trisha Yearwood, everybody.
Hey!
Hi.
It's so good to see you.
Good to see you.
And we're so glad you're feeling better.
There's a lot of smiles and a lot of hearts
and a lot of warmth sent your way right now.
And listen.
I was just saying to Garth, it must be so nice.
Y'all celebrated a 15th wedding anniversary.
And all the time that y'all have been spending together,
it must be so nice.
Yeah.
I mean I heard what he said.
I did try to get away from him some of those [INAUDIBLE]..
If Garth starts the conversation with,
hey, I don't want to offend you, but--
you just know.
'Cause I can't wait to see what's coming.
But it is-- we spent basically this whole year.
We've never been together-- we're together
most of the time, but everybody's been home.
So yeah, there's nowhere to run.
And it's good.
If you can talk about the hard stuff, it's good.
And we're in this for the long haul, so you're stuck with me.
And I am sassy again, so I'm feeling good.
Everything's fine.
I love that.
[APPLAUSE]
I love that.
And also, Trisha, Trisha, I understand that you
are an incredible cook.
So that must be really nice, to get all that cooking time in.
But I got to ask.
With so much time being together,
do you remember the first meal that you cooked for Garth?
Oh, yeah.
I do.
You do remember?
Yeah.
Fettucine alfredo?
Alfredo.
Do you want to tell it or you want me to tell it?
I think I fell asleep in my plate about halfway through.
Yeah.
The date was going really well and I
made this-- it was one of our first dates,
and I had made this fettuccine alfredo.
It was before I had written a cookbook.
And I just was like--
I'm going to try this out on him, because it's
really elegant and beautiful.
But it has a lot of cream.
Actually the book version doesn't
have as much cream or butter because of him.
Right.
He really-- I just saw him kind of glossing over about halfway
through the meal, and I-- he is gonna
go face first in his plate.
I know about him now, that he's that guy.
Once he hits the wall, he's got to lay down.
And I think-- he's like, that was great.
And he walked over and sat on the couch.
I thought well, now we're going to just snuggle or whatever.
And he was out.
Date over.
[APPLAUSE]
That's amazing.
All right, we are back with Garth Brooks
and Trisha Yearwood.
Now listen, before we go on, I just
have to say that my wife Allison Holker, her family loves you.
Huge fans, and are over the moon that I'm
talking with you right now.
So I'd be remiss to not just give love from them
right now before I went on.
That's very sweet.
Hey, man, can we ask you a question?
Absolutely.
So we kind of do the same thing for a living, so--
I find it really cool.
She's a dancer.
You're a dancer.
Do you guys ever critique each other's stuff
or give each other--
Absolutely.
And we work together quite often.
And honestly say it's the best partner to have,
because you know they're going to give you
the God-honest truth.
Yes.
Yes, for sure.
Unfortunately.
It's good though.
I really do want to hear the truth,
unless it's something I don't want to hear.
Then--
But it's also the respect you carry for each other.
Because I was a fan long before I was a fan.
You know?
Yeah.
That's what I love.
I think I'm sitting right here next to one of the greatest
voices that's ever sang music.
And no matter what genre, No matter what you hear,
I'll put her up against anybody.
[APPLAUSE]
You're very sweet.
Well, we want to send big love to the whole Holker family,
so--
Yes.
Yes, we do.
We appreciate that.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
You actually just scored me a lot of points.
I appreciate that.
Love that new math thing too.
[APPLAUSE]
Now look.
You both released your version of the song "Shallow,"
and people are really loving it.
So please tell us how that came about.
It was kind of an accident.
I mean I was a big fan.
We both watched the movie.
I think we were probably--
I was singing "Shallow" all the time like everybody else was.
Right.
And then we started getting the requests for it
for the live thing that we did.
Right.
And so we said--
finally they just kept pressing and pressing,
and we said, yeah, we'll try it for the album.
There it is.
But the truth, it was never going to make the album.
But as it started to go down and then you
started to hear Ms. Yearwood sing, all of a sudden I
realized, this Bradley Cooper guy is a pretty smart dude,
because--
just do four lines, get the hell out of the way,
and let the voice come in.
Pretty cool.
It was really fun.
It was really fun to do for him.
Absolutely.
Now have you heard from Bradley or Gaga about it?
No.
As long as we don't, we think they love it.
[LAUGHTER]
We both know them and they're very, very sweet to us,
but they haven't ever said anything.
We've never said anything.
And I'm wondering if, like us, if they're just
too scared to even mention it.
Right.
[LAUGHTER]
So we don't say anything.
We just ask about each other's families.
I'm sure that they love it.
Now also something that I'm sure people are really
loving and looking forward to is the touring.
Y'all going back out on the road,
and hopefully will be getting back out soon.
How excited are you to get back out here?
Nobody is more excited than we are.
And nobody is more excited than this guy.
I love, love, love being at home.
I love being with the love of my life.
I love getting to mess around with the farm.
But I think-- it's like baseball players or firemen.
I just miss the band.
I miss the crew.
And then you get out there, and if you've ever
been to a Garth show, Garth is way down the list
on what you want to watch.
It's those people's voices.
That's what I miss the most.
Hearing those voices all singing "The Dance,"
or all singing "The River" or "Friends in Low Places."
I just-- I miss them.
I don't know how to say it.
And I think we were--
I think we're both-- we talked about this a lot.
We're grateful, but we've never taken for granted
that we get to perform.
We've both said if it ended tomorrow,
I'd just be grateful for the time I had.
Mm hmm.
But we didn't expect it to actually end tomorrow.
[LAUGHTER]
It's a crazy year for everybody, to have
to not be out there doing it.
And music will be the last to come back,
because it encourages people to gather and put
their arms around each other and sing their favorite songs.
Absolutely.
But we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,
and it's going to happen and it's going to be awesome.
And we're going to do it together.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's going to be fun.
It's very different from sports.
I mean these football teams play to empty stadiums.
Trust me, a concert is not fun unless there's people.
[LAUGHTER]
That you see the reaction on their face
when that song comes, and they sing like they're
the only one in the stadium.
That's a beautiful thing to witness.
100%.
Something else that's really beautiful to witness it also is
just watching y'all talk about how much you love to do music.
You know what I mean?
And obviously that love has led to you being honored
at the Kennedy Center, man.
That's an incredible thing, man.
[APPLAUSE]
We've been lucky enough honor other artists at the Kennedy
Center honors.
So when you look up in that booth, who's ever also sitting
next to them is amazing.
So this is going to be pretty cool.
I'm a little nervous, scared, because I've never
been the guy in the booth.
[APPLAUSE]
Well--
So this is going to be fun.
Great.
And it's all a surprise.
He has no idea how cool it's gonna be.
Well, I got to say, man, it is well deserved.
And I have really enjoyed talking to y'all.
Y'all are.
I'm gonna say y'all are couple's gold, man.
I don't know if y'all heard of that, but you are.
But you're couple's gold.
I have so much love for y'all.
Garth and Trisha's song "Shallow"
is streaming on Amazon Music.
Much love to y'all.
We'll be right back.