The Life of Chris Gaines
By 1999, pop country superstar Garth Brooks had done it all in terms of CD sales, hit singles, sold out concerts, and achieving a massive fanbase who thought their icon could do no wrong. Indeed, even Brooks thought himself that he could do no wrong, and decided to “branch out” as it were, with little fears that his legions of faithful would support him in his new endeavor. That endeavor you ask? Certainly you haven’t forgotten already. Yes, I’m talking about the giant goose egg alter ego Brooks created in his monster lab known as “Chris Gaines.”
You see, Garth wanted to be a pop star just as much as a pop country star, but possibly felt like his fans would abandon him if he was actually ballsy enough to just say, “Hey, I wanna try to gain some new fans, so I’m going to release a pop album” and not do it under some goofy facade. Jazz artists do it all the time by going the pop route. Pop and rock artists go country occasionally as well. So what the hell was Brooks thinking? It may have actually just been a case of his ego finally taking over his creativity.
A “Behind The Music” special was created for fake artist Gaines, and he also appeared as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” the week Brooks hosted. The resulting album Garth Brooks in…the Life of Chris Gaines was intended as a precursor to a feature-length film entitled “The Lamb” that would star Brooks as Gaines and really get the wheels rolling on the project. Yeah…it doesn’t take much foresight to see how oddball this whole idea was, and the Chris Gaines album quickly became a resounding dud, even though it peaked at #2 on the Billboard album chart and actually scored Brooks with his only Top 40 pop hit “Lost in You.”
But the fans were wary and didn’t embrace the character in the long run. The movie studios also took note of this and “The Lamb” was forever shelved. After all this, Brooks’ career was never quite the same as pre-Gaines, though he still retained the rabid fans. He has gone into a semi-retirement, recently appearing again to do a limited series of shows. Like “From Justin to Kelly,” “Cool as Ice,” and the film version of “Magical Mystery Tour,” The Life of Chris Gaines will forever be the WTF blight on Garth Brooks’ career.
