Garth Brooks’s comeback to music after a 13-year break from the industry hasn’t gone off without a hitch. His much-ballyhooed return was meant to take place during a massive multi-night event in Dublin’s Croke Park last July, but he canceled the whole event at the last minute after the Irish government told Brooks he could only play three shows. Brooks’s two comeback singles, the syrupy tracks People Loving People and Mom, both flopped. (It’s an outright shame that Tacoma, the album’s finest song, never got released as a single.) And his freshly launched music service, Ghost Tunes – a statement against iTunes, where Brooks has never allowed his music to be sold – was met with a collective shrug by the public.
But that doesn’t mean his comeback hasn’t worked. Oh, it has. Forbes released its annual Country Cash Kings power list on Wednesday, and Brooks dominated every single one of his peers, coming in first place with estimated annual revenue of $90m over the past 12 months. Most of that revenue came from Brooks’s gigantic arena tour, which he announced one city at a time just a few weeks in advance. Brooks played multiple nights in each city in order to meet all the pent-up demand to see the bestselling country artist of all time. The strategy has been remarkably lucrative, and it has allowed Brooks to make his comeback on his own terms.
Toby Keith finished in second place on the list with $53m, which he earned mostly through various extensions of his own brand. Keith owns more than 20 branches of his eatery I Love This Bar and Grill, and he maintains a shiny endorsement deal with Ford. Not to be forgotten, he’s an equity holder at Big Machine Records, the wildly successful label that’s home to both Florida Georgia Line and Taylor Swift.
The rest of the top five includes artists that are at the peak of their fame, and are currently more relevant in modern country media than either Brooks or Keith – not that that’s hurting their bottom lines. Jason Aldean ($43.5m), Luke Bryan ($42.5m) and Kenny Chesney ($42m) have all reached No 1 on country radio in the past year, all raked in dough from massive endorsement deals, and all sold out stadium shows on the road. (See the full list here.)
It’s a testament to Brooks’s business savvy that he has earned more than twice as much as his nearest competitor without much help from the Nashville promotional machine, which tends to flex its muscles by getting music played on the radio en masse or making sure it’s prominently featured at influential places like YouTube and iTunes, both of which Brooks rejects.
