Garth Brooks: Sin City Here We Come!

This morning Garth Brooks held a press conference at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville in which he announced he would dust off the ol ten-gallon and officially come out of retirement. Brooks, who retired at the top of his game in 2000 to spend more time with his three daughters, has only played a handful of shows in the past decade, most notably President Barack Obama's inauguration.

After the press conference this morning, Brooks and a handful of media boarded a plane heading to an "undisclosed" location. It is widely speculated that the group is headed to the Wynn casino hotel in Las Vegas, where he will announce a string of shows in 2010 at 3pm PST. The hotel's Encore Theater has not had a permanent headliner since the death of comedian Danny Gans, and coincidentally, the Wynn has said in a statement that it would be announcing a new music schedule soon.

But can Brooks, who has sold 113 million albums and is the best-selling solo musician in U.S. history, get back into a game that has changed dramatically in his absence? He responds, "I know this is a young industry, so I'm not sure I'll be welcomed back. But if the fans want me, I still want to pursue my music." Considering how quickly his five Los Angeles wildfire benefit dates in 2007 sold out, it's fair to say the demand for Garth Brooks hasn't diminished in his ten year hiatus.

Having sat on the sidelines for a decade, Brooks took advantage of the press conference to take the music industry to task, saying, "We need to take back the music." He added, "We don't realize how powerful we are. If the world goes silent for a day, we will realize how powerful we are. Athletics have got it right: until we unionize, we have no power."

To date, Brooks' digital catalog is available exclusively at WalMart. Hopefully his return signals a willingness to release his potent catalog to other digital outlets. However, he cautioned that his music would not be available digitally until the current music system, "gets it together."

One thing we know for certain, Garth Brooks will be the biggest thing to happen to Las Vegas since Elvis.