Dierks Bentley Keeps A Recording Of A Garth Brooks Sax Solo From 1993 On His Tour Bus

Dierks Bentley digs the saxophone… specifically when country music superstar Garth Brooks is the one working the woodwind instrument.

Dierks Bentley released his 11th studio album Broken Branches this past weekend, and if you call yourself a fans of the “I Hold On” singer, you’ve got to check it out (guess if you are a true fan, you’ve already listened to it a handful of times). The reflective new album meets Bentley where he currently is – exploring life’s outlier moments and bravely cherishing the fact that we’re all broken branches on a family tree. Songs like the title track and “For As Long As I Can Remember” explore that theme, while other tracks like “Cold Beer Can” (his collaboration with Stephen Wilson Jr.) and “She Hates Me” present Dierks’ signature blending of heartfelt and humor.

A couple of days prior to his album’s release on June 13, Bentley held a celebratory event to help kick things off in an area just under and hour south of Nashville. It was called the “Dinner in the Creek” because… well, dinner was served in an actual creek. There was even a stage set up over the running water, and it was there where Dierks played a couple of songs for those in attendance… and told a couple of stories.

One of the standout stories that Bentley covered (at least in my opinion) was a random riff on his obsession with one particular ’90s country performance. I could describe the Garth Brooks live performance that Dierks is referring to… or I could just let you hear straight from Dierks Bentley himself:

“His live show in 1993, it was a big deal back then. No social media obviously. When country music came on TV, it was a huge deal. And (Garth) did a live show in ’93, at 8 PM it came on. We actually have a recording of it on the bus. The sax solo. You guys remember that?

‘One Night A Day.’ He walks around and he steps on the baby grand piano. A tenor sax… the big one, gets handed to him. And he puts it on and just rips a sax solo. You need to go back and watch it. Look that up on YouTube… it’s incredible.”

@whiskeyriff @dierksbentley #garthbrooks #chrisgaines #whiskeyriff ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff

I did look it up… and I found it.

I’ve got to hand it to Dierks. It’s a very impressive, mesmerizing and incredible performance from Garth Brooks. I’d classify it as a, “Who knew Garth could do that?” kind of moment. Sure enough, things played out in the 1993 concert just as Bentley remembered (wonder how many time Dierks has watched it?). At the same time, we’re talking about a guy who flew across the stadium on a wire, the guy who had a whole Chris Gaines alter ego… OF COURSE G ripped a sax solo from atop a piano. When the song “One Night A Day” was about to reach its crescendo, Garth was handed a dazzling saxophone, and didn’t immediately put it to use. Guess he was building up anticipation? But holy smokes… when Brooks did put lips-to-reed, his sax solo brought the house down.

And believe it or not, he only took 4 lessons before trying it out live, and… he failed miserably. In an old interview, he explained how it went down:

“We had a song called, “One Night a Day” that needed a sax solo. We didn’t have a sax player. So I took four lessons and tried it in front of 20,000 people. That was the worst thing I’ve ever done! So the next night it got a little better and the next night a little better until finally we could pull it off enough just to make it a memory in the show.”

I guarantee you’ll be as obsessed about it as Dierks Bentley is:

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