Garth Brooks Wants To Record New Albums As Chris Gaines Alter-Ego
Brooks told the audience that he wants the Chris Gaines project to be a series of albums.
Country icon Garth Brooks is set to break his eyeliner and emo bangs out of storage as he gets ready to bring his alter-ego Chris Gaines back to life.
Back in 1999, Brooks, already a country superstar, wanted to explore more genres and decided to do so through a rock persona. Thus, the character Chris Gaines was born, and Brooks was even developing a film around the character, titled The Lamb. The movie never came to fruition, but an album, Garth Brooks… In the Life of Chris Gaines, did.
Brooks went full method actor when it came to the Gaines persona, taking part in a fake episode of VH1’s Behind The Music centered on Gaines’ elaborate fictional life and having Gaines as the musical guest when Brooks hosted SNL. Cast member Tracy Morgan even joked that Brooks needed to “drop Chris Gaines like a hot plate.”
The project was confusing to many fans, let alone the general public, who were less tuned in, but the album’s single “Lost In You” did score Brooks his only Top 40 hit.
Now, 24 years later, Brooks is ready to give the project another go. During a Q&A at Billboard Country Live: In Conversation, Brooks told the audience that he wants the Gaines project to be a series of albums.
“The five albums have to come out,” he announced. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m 61,” he continued, “but now everything takes three hours more than it took time to do before.” He elaborated, “The Gaines project was a lot of time put in, because it’s not natural, right? You’re acting on a record. But I want to do it … I don’t know when we’re going to get to it, but it’s on the list that we’re going to get done.” He then reiterated the number: “five albums.”
