Garth Brooks’ invite to Travis Kelce still stands. ET’s Rachel Smith spoke to the country music icon on Thursday, and he once again reacted to the NFL star belting out his iconic song, “Friends in Low Places,” at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade. During an appearance on Inside Studio G on TalkShopLive, Brooks praised Kelce’s rendition as “fantastic,” and even invited him to do a repeat performance at the grand opening of his new Nashville establishment, Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk.
Since then, Brooks has yet to hear from Kelce — “Guy’s the busiest guy on the planet,” he told ET — but he’s not deterred. While Kelce won’t make the bar’s opening since he’s currently in Singapore to see his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, Brooks is extending his offer to fly the athlete to Nashville. “I’ll send a plane anytime he wants to come here and sing,” Brooks told ET. “What he did to that song… it’s the underdog song, right? It’s weird how the repeating Super Bowl champions were the underdog, but I love the fact that he got that song inside and out by just the way he sang it.”
Though Kelce won’t be on hand for Thursday’s opening, Brooks is thrilled to finally unveil his latest venture, one that his wife, fellow country singer and cookbook author Trisha Yearwood, was initially unsure about. “He does music on a grand scale. I do cooking shows, I do cookbooks, I have a furniture line, I do stuff with Williams-Sonoma. I have a lot of stuff going on, so I was nervous about being a part of something where I would be part of the restaurant,” Yearwood told ET. “I’m scared of the restaurant business. I’ve never done it before and I wanna do it well, but I can’t imagine there being a Garth Brooks bar without Trisha food.”
After meeting the team, including Strategic Hospitality co-owner Max Goldberg, Yearwood became convinced that she and Brooks “can do this.” What they developed ended up being a four-story bar with a honky-tonk, a menu full of Yearwood’s recipes, a great place to watch live music, and a fun, oasis-themed rooftop to boot. “It’s so fun. If I could give the people one gift, it’s what they’ve given me,” Brooks told ET. “… Getting married to Ms. Yearwood, I want people to taste what I get to eat anytime. She’s just amazing.”
It’s no surprise Brooks is so passionate about the bar. In fact, according to Goldberg, Brooks and Yearwood were involved in “every single design element, every detail” of the establishment. “They feel like family at this point and I just cannot express how involved they were with every single decision,” he said. “I mean, it was surprising not to see Garth down here hanging drywall on a certain day. The way they do things is inspiring, and I think that’s how we ended up with this insane product.”
Goldberg added, “People ask, ‘Are Garth and Trisha really that nice?’ And I’m like, ‘Whatever you think, they’re better than that.’ Garth has become one of my absolute favorite people in the world… I love him. He’s the best. I love Trisha. I can’t describe how special she is. Working with them on this project has been one of the greatest joys of my career.” Fans can see how it all came together in Brooks and Yearwood’s new docuseries, Friends in Low Places, which is now streaming on Prime Video.
