Garth Brooks Honored At 43rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors

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Pictured (L-R, back row): Joan Baez, Garth Brooks; (L-R, front row) Debbie Allen, Dick Van Dyke, Midori

Garth Brooks was celebrated at the 43rd annual Kennedy Center Honors over the weekend in a series of events in the nation’s capital. Fellow Kennedy Center Honorees along with Brooks included actress-dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen, folk singer and activist Joan Baez, violin virtuoso Midori, and beloved acting icon Dick Van Dyke.

After being delayed a year due to COVID-19, the group’s Washington, D.C. itinerary included a Thursday meeting with the President and First Lady, a Thursday evening event featuring the National Symphony Orchestra, Friday’s Medallion Ceremony in the Kennedy Center’s Opera House which was hosted by prior recipient Gloria Estefan, and a Saturday performance event on an outdoor plaza at the cultural center for the arts.

Brooks was elated at receiving the honor. “Just getting to be among this level of ‘character’…I feel very lucky,” he noted at the Medallion Ceremony Friday evening. “An award is only as good as the names that are on it,” he explained. “When you walk in that door…and you see the list of names…and then you sit in this group…and get to be a part of this…for the first time in my life, I don’t mind being the weak link in the chain. I’m in the chain – that’s it.”

Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood

On Saturday, Brooks added more thanks, posting on his socials, “To loosely quote Maya Angelou, I stand here as one but I stand here for the people who have carried me to this point.”

Brooks is also celebrating selling out the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, where 80,000 tickets were sold in less than an hour. He will likely recap the weekend of celebrations on Inside Studio G on Facebook today (May 24).

Lorie Hollabaugh
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