The Real Story Behind Garth Brooks’ Marathon 23-Hour Autograph Session – With No Bathroom Breaks – At Fan Fair In 1996

Y’all ready for CMA Fest?

The annual music festival, the largest in country music, is just a week away from kicking off here in Nashville. This year’s event, which takes place June 5-8, features 10 official stages with performances from artists like Cody Johnson, Riley Green, Luke Bryan, Ashley McBryde and many more on the main stage at Nissan Stadium.

The festival started way back in 1972 as Fan Fair, and was actually created as a way to keep fans from attending the Country Music Association’s annual industry-only convention. Instead, Fan Fair would present an opportunity for fans to meet their favorite artists, get autographs, and see performances from some of the biggest names in country music.

The inaugural Fan Fair was attended by around 5,000 fans, so it was much smaller than the estimated 2024 attendance of 90,000 – per day.

Obviously the event has changed quite a bit over the years. Originally, events and artist appearances were organized by record labels themselves, before the CMA eventually took over the organization of the festival and rebranded it as CMA Music Festival in 2004.

One of the most exciting parts of the original iteration of Fan Fair was the opportunity to not only see your favorite artist perform, but also get to meet them in person and get an autograph. There’s still some of that that goes on during the festival, mainly inside the Music City Center, but long gone are the days where you’ll find the superstars of country music sitting at a booth and signing autographs during the festival.

But back in 1996, you could still meet the biggest artists in country music during Fan Fair – including Garth Brooks, who famously signed autographs for 23 hours straight during that year’s Fan Fair.

The story has been told over and over again: Garth standing there for nearly a full day, signing autographs for every fan that came through the line. It’s something we’ll likely never see again. But do you know the real reason he did it?

To tell the full story, we need to set the scene. Back in 1996, Garth was undeniably one of the biggest names in country music. He was fresh off his first world tour, and every album that he had released to that point in his career (aside from his debut album) had topped the album charts. He also had 15 #1 singles, and was one of the best-selling artists in the world.

But his 1995 album Fresh Horses didn’t really live up to the sky-high expectations for Garth at the time. While it came out of the gate strong, it to this day remains the only album from the first decade of his career that hasn’t been certified diamond, despite containing hits like “The Beaches of Cheyenne” and “She’s Every Woman.”

As Garth admits, he was “one of the older acts” at his label at the time. And the label itself was also undergoing changes: In 1991, his label Capitol Nashville had changed its name to Liberty Records, with president Jimmy Bowen also launching a sister label, Patriot Records. But in 1995, during leadership changes at the label, Patriot Records closed its doors and Liberty Records went back to being known as Capitol Records.

With all of the restructuring going on, Garth noticed that the label wasn’t supporting his music and his tour as much as they had in the past (as evidenced by the relative lack of success of Fresh Horses) and took that as a sign that the label was looking to move on from Garth in favor of new, younger artists.

“There were rumors that older acts were going to go out, newer acts were going to come in and replace them. Which is normal always at labels. But one of the older acts was me.”

Garth admits that he was “lost,” but says he saw Fan Fair as an opportunity to prove to the label that he still had the support of his fans:

“The great thing about Fan Fair then was, it’s at the Fairgrounds… It was fantastic, because these are the people that brought your records, these are the people that came.”

So Garth called up a friend and pitched a crazy idea: Drive down to Fan Fair, park his truck and see what happens.

“Our bosses are not the record labels. Our bosses are not country radio or the CMAs, as much as I love those people. Our bosses are those people on the other side of radio. Those people that show up in those seats. I said, ‘Let’s go see what the bosses think.’ We pulled up at right around 9, 9:30, and just parked the truck right in the middle of the midway and got out.

There was a sweet little security guard, an older lady, that said, ‘Oh honey, you cannot be here.’ And she took me by the arm and moved me out of the way. We had already started, and so here it came. We got a chance to be with the people and they were going to tell me where I was at in my career. And it began.”

“It” was a marathon autograph session that ended up going for over 23 hours. And Garth didn’t even take bathroom breaks, because he knew if he stopped it would be hard to start again:

“It’s like anything else: If you stop for a second, you’re not going to start back up, so just keep going.”

Well as the autograph session dragged on into the night, Garth admits that his friend was hoping security would eventually put a stop to it and close up the festival. But he says that they eventually came up to him and told him that they were going to stay as long as they needed to, so Garth was free to keep going.

But Mother Nature also threatened to put a halt to Garth’s statement to his label when a thunderstorm popped up around midnight. And Garth admits that he thought it was over, but fans came prepared:

“I’m thinking, ‘This is how it’s going to end? People running to their cars, unhappy?’

Guys, I’m telling you right now, it was like a military operation. They popped out tents, coolers, rain gear. We didn’t lose one of ’em. Everybody stayed there.

So the storm blows through, it’s about four in the morning and you’re starting to see the end of the line way down there. But the crazy thing is with everybody you sign and everybody you hug, you realize they’ve been there as long as you have.”

And after the 23-hour session wrapped up, Garth says that it meant a lot to him to be able to send a message that he still had the support of his fans:

“When you get to take pictures, stories, and then hear those stories of what that music has done to them, and you’ve got somebody in a suit and tie going, ‘Eh, I don’t think you’re still among the people,’ I’m gonna take those stories over any awards or anything they can give me.”

Well to put a bow on the story, Garth ended up staying with Capitol Records until he “retired” back in 2001 after the release of his album Scarecrow. So obviously whatever message he was trying to send to his label by signing autographs for 23 hours, it got through to them and they ended up keeping him around.

It’s these kinds of stories that make me wish Fan Fair was still around like it was back in the day. CMA Fest is fun, and there are still opportunities to mix and mingle with your favorite artists, but you’re never going to see one of the biggest superstars of the day standing by their truck signing autographs for 23 hours.

At least not until one of them thinks they’re going to be released by their record label.The post The Real Story Behind Garth Brooks’ Marathon 23-Hour Autograph Session – With No Bathroom Breaks – At Fan Fair In 1996 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.