NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Garth Brooks first came to Nashville in 1985 expecting to conquer country music with breath-taking speed and ease.
He's a fast learner. It took him only 23 hours to realize that the music industry wasn't exactly waiting in line to follow his star.
He came back a wiser man two years ago, and now has his debut album out and a top 15 single, 'Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old).'
Brooks, who has an advertising degree from Oklahoma State University, re-lived his first sad encounter with the music business.
'When you are by yourself for the first time, you really have to prove yourself. You start looking down inside you, about what makes you up and you start pulling these things out to handle each adversity as it comes. I took a real good look as to who I was for the first time. I was made up of my family, the good Lord and my friends. None of them were around me.
'So the only thing good about that first trip was that I was not stupid enough to hang around. There was something that kept telling me that this is what I'm supposed to do, but the time sure wasn't right. I was sitting looking at those motel walls. I made up my mind I'm going home.
A little bit earlier, he got a lesson he says he will never forget as long as he lives.
'I sat in Merlin Littlefield's office at ASCAP. At the time I left Stillwater, Okla., I was making $600 a week playing nightclubs. It was not bad money -- $100 a night six nights a week at six different clubs.
'I got down here and this guy comes into visit Merlin and Merlin said, 'I'm glad you're finally going to meet a songwriter that's great, an outstanding songwriter.' He was visiting Merlin because he couldn't afford a $500 loan. That's when it hit me. These guys don't make a million. I told Merlin when the guy went out that I made that much a week. He looked at me and said, 'Go home then.'
'I walked out of that office hating that guy's guts, hating him. And now every day I thank Merlin Littlefield for being straight with me.'
Asked what he learned by his brief experience, Brooks joked: 'That Hank Sr. was dead. I thought it was a lie.'
But more seriously he said:
'I didn't think I'd have to work to break in. I came out here thinking there was nobody that was as talented as I was. I was really naive. I was 24. I was really a kid at this. I'm not saying I'm so professional now but at least I don't have to wear glasses to see where I'm going.'
After his initial disappointment, Brooks went back to Stillwater and married his girlfriend, Sandy, and that made all the difference, he said.
'I came here the first time thinking I didn't need any help. When I got here I found out I was wrong. The thing about it is it almost takes a death to shake out of it, to realize that God gives you gifts and you use them or you waste them. It took me a trip out here and a very embarrasing 23 hours to realize God may have given you the gift but that doesn't mean you can do nothing and get away with it.
'What's different now is my wife. I can fly on my own when things are good as generally someone who is an ass can. I forget everybody around me when things are going great. When things are bad I go to her. It's like Waylon Jennings' 'Rainy Day Woman.' I was ready to head back the second time when the band fell apart. She kept me out here.'
Brooks, who attended college on a track scholarship, co-authored five of the 10 cuts on his self-titled album, including 'Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old).'
The hit song was originally about a musician, Brooks said.
He tried an experimental version of the song while performing at Bink's, a Stillwater club. Later a patron at the club, Randy Taylor, approached him to see if he could help him out with the song.
'He changed it to a saddle bronc rider. But the message of 'Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)' fits everybody. You are not getting younger fits everybody.'
Brooks said songwriting will be a big part of his career.
'I've got things to say and opinions I want expressed,' he said.
