Why Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood Will be 'The Happiest Couple' at the ACM Awards
— -- Garth Brooks was just a few weeks into his world tour when he was nominated for Entertainer of the Year at this Sunday's ACM Awards.
Since then, he has gone on to play his 100th show on the trek, with ticket sales topping the two-million mark.
Despite those impressive statistics, he knows he's facing some stiff competition with Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line all vying for the fan-voted trophy.
"The talent level is crazy, and again, there's five names in there we can name," he told ABC News. "Keith [Urban], Blake [Shelton], Eric [Church] -- you could name, there's guys that should be in there as well that aren't, so this is gonna be a tough category to walk away with it."
Brooks has actually won ACM Entertainer of the Year six times, and was named the ACM Artist of the Decade for the 1990s. Still, it took a request from his wife, Trisha Yearwood, to calm his nerves going into Sunday night's show.
"My wife said, 'Do me a favor. Let's go there with no expectation. Let's be the happiest couple in the room, and let's have fun,'" he said. "I don't know if an award show I've ever done that, 'cause [with] awards shows, you're always nervous and everything, but this one -- I'm just gonna go there and have fun."
The fun will begin Friday night when Brooks and Yearwood will co-host the ACM Lifting Lives charity gala in Dallas, which will feature performances from Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, The Band Perry and more. The next day, Yearwood will fly to the East Coast to launch her new furniture line before heading back to Texas for Sunday night's ACM Awards.
"Her schedule is a lot more hectic than mine," Brooks marveled. "I'm just gonna come there and play music and have some fun!"
