Garth Brooks Net Worth, Wife and Details of His Divorce From Sandy Mahl

What is Garth Brooks’ net worth?

Brooks was born in Tulsa Oklahoma on February 7, 1962. As a child, he sang in casual family settings. Garth was an active athlete while in high school, playing football, baseball and racing the tracks. He received a scholarship to study at Oklahoma State University, where he graduated with a degree in advertising.

His music career began in 1985 when he started out singing in clubs and bars especially the Wild Willie’s Saloon. He signed with Capitol Records in 1989 and released his debut eponymous album the same year. The album produced a hit single “If Tomorrow Never Comes” and debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums.

See Also: Top 15 Highest Paid Country Musicians In The World

His second album ‘No Fences’ was even more successful, peaking at #1 on the same chart and maintaining the position for 23 weeks, it also reached #3 on the Billboard 200. The album sold 17 million copies outside the US making it Garth’s most sold album to date. The album produced the hit single ‘The Dance’ which became his signature song.

Garth’s third album Ropin’ the Wind released in 1991 made history as the first country music to peak at #1 on the Billboard 200. It is also his second best-selling album. The fourth album released in 1993 accomplished the same feat debuting at the top spot on the Billboard 200. The same year he embarked on his first world tour which was a massive success selling out venues upon venues. The second world tour was even more successful grossing over $105 million.

Sevens (1997), Scarecrow (2001) and Double Live (1998) albums also peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200, the latter became the best-selling live album of all time.

Here is a list of Garth Brooks’ most successful albums sales per the RIAA

-Garth Brooks, certified platinum 10 times

-No Fences certified platinum 17 times

-Ropin’ the Wind, certified platinum 14 times

-Sevens, certified platinum 10 times

-The Hits, certified platinum 10 times

-Double Live, certified platinum 21 times

His Retirement and 2009 Comeback

The country singer announced his retirement in 2000. According to him, he was retiring to devote more time to family. Following a series of family issues with wife Sandy Mahl which led to their divorce in 2000 and $125 million settlement, Garth retired as a recording and performing artist a year later.

This had been very disappointing for his numerous fans who were still thirsty for more of Brooks. However, four years later in 2005, he returned to live performances and signed a distributing deal with Walmart who sold his various compilation box sets.

In 2009 he suspended his retirement and signed a 5-year concert deal with Encore Hotel and Casino Las Vegas. The singer did a few live performances while in his las vegas residency but also flew often to spend time with his daughters.

In 2014, under his own label Pearl Records, Garth released “Man Against Machine” his 10th studio album since the release of Scarecrow in 2001 prior to his retirement. “Man Against Machine” in 2014 made almost $700,000 in album sales and was certified gold in the US. It debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200.

Thanks to his eponymous world tour with wife Trisha Yearwood which began in 2014 and will last three years, Garth Brooks made $90 million between 2014 and 2015 making him 6th on the list of highest-paid celebrities in 2015. The concert tour has been raking in an average of $1 million per stop and has sold almost 3 million tickets. In 2016, he made $70 million which made him the highest-earning country musician of the year.

A Look at Garth Brooks’ Career Earnings / Accomplishments

Garth Brooks is a country music legend by many standards. The RIAA named him the best-selling artist in the U.S. in the 20th Century, and the second of all time after The Beatles. He has topped the records set by other popular artists like The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Brooks has sold over 135 million albums worldwide. In 2012, Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Brooks has released 10 studio albums, 3 compilation albums, 3 box sets, 1 live album, 3 Christmas albums, and 77 singles. 6 of his studio albums have reached diamond status in the U.S. He has won 2 Grammy Awards, 11 CMA awards, and 17 American Music Awards. He also worked on a Christmas duet album with his wife for the holiday season of 2016. After his break, Garth Brook whose net worth is about $350 million seems to have taken the world by storm. His latter days could even be more successful.

Meet Garth Brooks’ Wife, and Family

The Singer Was Formerly Married To Sandy Mahl

Full Name: Sandy Mahl Brooks

Date of Birth: 16 January 1965

Occupation: Wildlife Rehabilitator, Wild Heart Ranch (WHR) Vice President & Co-Founder, Songwriter

Marital Status: Divorced (married Garth Brooks from 1986–2001)

Number of Children: 3

Owing to the fact that Garth Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood, who is also a country music singer, have remained an outstanding power couple since they tied the knot in 2005, many fans may not be aware that he was previously married to someone else. The country music legend was formerly married to Sandy Mahl, who played a major role in his career, standing by him from the beginning of his music career until he rose to stardom.

The duo met and began dating while they were both undergraduate students of Oklahoma State University–Stillwater. Brooks was in his senior year at the time and worked as a bouncer at the Tumblewood Ballroom in Stillwater. In the course of his duty, two ladies got into a fight in the women’s restroom and one of them happened to be Mahl who threw a punch and got her hand stuck in the wood paneling of the club.

Brooks broke up the fight, and that was how he met his future first wife for the first time. They subsequently got married in 1986 after which she moved from her base in Oklahoma to be with her husband in Nashville. The couple’s union saw the birth of their daughters; Taylor Mayne Pearl (1992), August Anna (1994), and Allie Colleen Brooks (1996). Their seemingly solid foundation notwithstanding, Garth and Sandy later went their separate ways in 2000, a few weeks after Brooks announced his retirement.

According to the organization’s website, Sandy is the Vice President and co-founder of Wild Heart Ranch, an Oklahoma-based rehabilitation facility for all species of wildlife needing orphan support, injury treatment, or disease recovery. She is also credited as one of the songwriters on two of Garth’s songs titled “I’ve Got a Good Thing Going” and “That Summer.”

Details of Garth Brooks’ Subsequent Divorce From Mahl

The country musician and his first wife remained together and appeared to have it all together untill 1999 when their marriage finally fell apart. This was after Brooks decided to take some time off from his music career in order to pay more attention to his family. Ironically, while he was able to become a better father to his daughters during the time he stayed at home, he discovered that being a husband to his wife was no longer possible.

Announcing the end of their marriage in an interview with Billboard magazine in 2000, the superstar acknowledged that the divorce was based on mutual agreement. “Sandy and I both agree that we need to get divorced,” he said. “Right now, we’re focused on the impact it will have on our children and how to handle that best, to remain parents even if we don’t remain husband and wife,” he added.

While the news of Garth’s divorce from Mahl came as a shock to fans, it was even more disturbing that the couple decided to keep them in the dark as to why they chose to part ways. However, some pieces of answers began to emerge years later. While Brooks was trying to get his career off the ground in Nashville, he met fellow upcoming musician, Trisha Yearwood in 1987, one year and a month after he tied the knot with Mahl. And on meeting her, Brooks told Ellen DeGeneres that “I felt that feeling like when you just meet your wife.”

However, he chose to honor his commitment to Sandy and make their marriage work. “Being married, it’s gotta be right. This is who you went to college with and you were married in front of God and your family and everybody”, he said.  Nevertheless, Brooks went on, “There comes that time where you’re looking at the rest of your life and going, ‘How do you want to live it?’”

Apart from wanting to live the rest of his life with the ‘right’ person, the singer also acknowledged that his life as a touring artist also contributed to the failure of his marriage to Sandy. “[I was] gone so much on the road [during our marriage], there were things I guess she was [trying to tell] me that I didn’t hear until this biography…”. Garth said while reacting to Sandy’s comments about their marriage in the documentary Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On.

According to reports, Sandy Mahl was paid $125 million in the divorce settlement and while her ex-husband has long remarried, she has remained single since their divorce.

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Remarrying A Second Time To Trisha Yearwood 

Full Name: Patricia Lynn Yearwood

Date of Birth: September 19, 1964

Occupation: Country Recording Artist, Actress, Author, Television Personality, and Celebrity Chef

Marital Status: Married (married Garth Brooks in 2005)

Number of Children: None

After Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood met in 1987, they remained friends and musical partners as they were both married to other people at the time. Their friendship continued all through the first half of their careers. However, after they both got divorced from their partners, they got romantically involved around 2002. In 2005, Garth asked Yearwood to marry him onstage in the presence of about 7,000 people in Bakersfield, California, and she said ‘yes’.

They later got married in the same year, precicely on the 13th of December. The wedding, which took place at the couple’s Owasso, Oklahoma home was attended by Brook’s three daughters among others. After the wedding, the duo decided to settle down in Oklahoma so that Brooks can remain close to his children as he promised them in 1999.

Speaking of his second marriage in the documentary Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On, Garth expressed gratitude for the way things worked out, saying that had it been he and Trisha got married at the time they met in the 90s, they probably would not have excelled in their career or their marriage would not have lasted. “So I have to believe that things happen when they happen. I feel very lucky right now where I’m at. So even if I did have regrets, I wouldn’t change anything in fear of changing where I’m at right now”, he added.

During an interview with People Magazine, Yearwood revealed one major factor that has contributed to the success of their marriage and that is making a conscious effort to keep to the commitment they made to each other not to spend time apart. Consequently, she said, they always tour together and if she’s doing something, he’ll be with her, if not at the venue, then at the hotel or somewhere around.

Meet His Mother

Colleen Carol was also a well-known name in the music industry during her youthful days. Colleen who lost her life in August 1999 to throat cancer, was the mother of Garth Brooks. Brooks surely got his singing talent from his mother Colleen who was also a country singer.

She may be dead but Brooks has never stopped honoring his mother especially on mothers’ day. The younger generation even got to know more about Brook’s mother from his constant tribute to her on mothers’ day. The most unforgettable would be that of 2015 where the artist had to post a video of a collection of personal photos of his mum when she was alive.