SALT LAKE CITY — Country music star Garth Brooks is playing in Salt Lake City this weekend, and his wife Trisha Yearwood came with him and is helping a local cause that she's passionate about.
Brooks is performing on back-to-back nights at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium Friday and Saturday. He was initially only booked for one show but added another after tickets sold out extremely fast. Before his concert at the same venue last summer, Brooks said Utah is one of his favorite places to perform.
Salt Lake is the only city on his current tour where he is playing twice.
FOX 13 News spoke one-on-one with Brooks on Friday ahead of his show — as well as his wife, fellow country star Trisha Yearwood, who is making her visit to the Beehive State about more than music.
Brooks said he loves to surround himself with people and he sees the good in this country while he's center stage.
"I'm telling you, if you could sit where I sit during the show, you would see what happens when people work together, when people love one another trust one another. We're all here for the same reason. So everybody has this common goal, and then it makes the night unbelievable," he said. "If we could just apply that to life would be great."
With the amount of people who he inspires, FOX 13 News asked Brooks if he considers himself a role model.
"No, no — not at all. I think everybody's got their superpower," he said. "And if I had to pick mine, I think I'm the guy next door. I think I like the same pizza you like, I think I like the same restaurant you like, right? And so that's my thing is, if I like it, maybe hopefully somebody else will. And that's the whole thought process behind what the last 30 years has been for us is just, 'Hey, man, treat people the way you want to be treated.'"
While she's here, Yearwood decided to get behind a pet food drive happening Saturday for the Best Friends Animal Society's pantry. She donated 500 pounds of food, Smith's matched that donation with gift cards for the charity, and the public donated about 700 pounds and 200 cans at the drive.
Yearwood said this is a cause near and dear to her heart ever since she was a little girl.
"I was always the 'Can I keep it?' kid," she said. "You know, I've always kind of taken in strays, and so rescue has always been something that I've been a part of and really big on."
"I'm coming to Salt Lake with Garth. It's his show," Yearwood continued. "But what can we do here? And so we're helping out Best Friends, which is an incredible shelter... a great passion for animals and just animal welfare and what they're doing here, so we're here to support them."
