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59 free Garth Brooks trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Which event did he throw at Oklahoma State, what was his day job when two songwriters handed him his signature song, and how many times did he get a hit in spring training with the Mets? This Garth Brooks trivia quiz has 59 free questions with answers that run from Tulsa and Yukon, Oklahoma through the 1989 debut, No Fences and Ropin' the Wind, the banned Thunder Rolls video, Garthstock in Central Park, the Chris Gaines detour, the 2000 retirement, the Wynn residency, the Croke Park fiasco, the comeback tours and the recent inauguration and state-funeral performances. The early questions are the ones any country radio listener will know. Later ones get into songwriters and co-writers, chart firsts, cover versions, the G-Men studio band, the GhostTunes experiment, the baseball detours and the RIAA record books. It works for a road trip, a honky-tonk trivia night or a country music round in a pub quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Brooks, his albums and singles, the Central Park concert and Trisha Yearwood, and each question links to the page and sentence that supports it.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Oklahoma city was Garth Brooks born in 1962?
Tulsa
His mother, Colleen Carroll, had been a 1950s country singer on Capitol Records; his father was a draftsman for an oil company.
Q 02His mother, a 1950s country singer, appeared on which television show?
Ozark Jubilee
Colleen Carroll sang on Red Foley's Ozark Jubilee, broadcast by ABC from Springfield, Missouri, in the 1950s, and recorded for Capitol, her son's later label.
Q 03The family hosted weekly talent nights at their home in which small Oklahoma town?
Yukon
The Brooks family moved to Yukon, a small town west of Oklahoma City, when Garth was four; its weekly talent nights had every child sing or perform a skit.
Q 04In which track event did Brooks compete on his college athletic scholarship?
Javelin
Brooks threw the javelin on a track scholarship, worked nights as a bouncer at a local bar, and graduated in 1984 with an advertising degree.
Q 05Which university did he attend, later returning to finish an MBA in 2011?
Oklahoma State
Brooks earned an advertising degree at Oklahoma State in 1984 and later completed an MBA there, walking in the Stillwater commencement on 6 May 2011.
Q 06What was the name of the band Brooks formed in college, playing whatever the crowd wanted?
Santa Fe
Santa Fe, the bar band Brooks fronted in college, moved with him to Nashville in 1987 and soon broke up; roommate Ty England later played guitar in his road band until 1995.
Q 07Whose 1981 debut single 'Unwound' convinced Brooks to play country instead of rock?
George Strait
Hearing George Strait's 'Unwound' on the radio in 1981 turned Brooks toward country; before that he leaned toward 1970s singer-songwriters and rock rather than country radio.
Q 08How long did Brooks's first trip to Nashville, in 1985, last before he went home to Oklahoma?
Less than 24 hours
Attorney Rod Phelps had lent him contacts and credit cards; Phelps kept nagging until Brooks and his wife moved there for good in 1987.
Q 09What was Brooks's debut single, released in March 1989?
Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)
'Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)', co-written with Randy Taylor about a worn-out rodeo rider, reached number 8 on the country chart in 1989 and launched his career.
Q 10What was his first number-one on the Hot Country Songs chart?
If Tomorrow Never Comes
'If Tomorrow Never Comes', written with Kent Blazy, topped the Hot Country Songs chart in December 1989 as the second single from his self-titled debut album.
Q 11Which Irish singer topped the UK chart in 2002 with a cover of Brooks's first country number one?
Ronan Keating
Ronan Keating, the former Boyzone frontman, took his cover to number one in the UK in May 2002, his third solo chart-topper there.
Q 12Which song does Brooks say is his favorite of everything he has recorded?
The Dance
'The Dance', written by Tony Arata, closed his debut album and went to number one in 1990; its video won ACM Video of the Year and Brooks has called it his favorite.
Q 13Which champion bull rider appears in the video for the ballad closing his debut album?
Lane Frost
Q 21Written after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, "We Shall Be Free" won Brooks an award from which organization?
GLAAD
GLAAD gave Brooks a Media Award for 'We Shall Be Free', whose line about being 'free to love anyone we choose' was read as support for gay relationships; the single peaked at number 12.
Q 22Before singing the 1993 Super Bowl anthem, Brooks walked out until NBC agreed to do what?
Air his new music video first
The network caved; the video, dedicated 'to the human spirit', had premiered on CMT that January.
Q 23In 1993 Brooks persuaded Capitol not to ship In Pieces to stores that did what?
Sold used CDs
Lane Frost, the 1987 world champion bull rider, died at Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1989 after completing his ride; the montage also shows Keith Whitley, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Challenger crew.
Q 14Whose opening act was Brooks on his first major tour in 1989?
Kenny Rogers
Brooks's first major tour in 1989 was as Kenny Rogers's opening act; by October 1990 he had been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.
Q 15Which song from No Fences became his signature blue-collar anthem?
Friends in Low Places
'Friends in Low Places' spent four weeks at number one in 1990 and won Single of the Year at both the ACM Awards and the 1991 CMA Awards.
Q 16Which pair wrote his signature drinking anthem after a lunch at Nashville's Tavern on the Row?
Dewayne Blackwell and Earl Bud Lee
Dewayne Blackwell and Earl Bud Lee hatched the title when Lee, short of cash at Tavern on the Row, joked about who would cover lunch; Brooks sang their demo.
Q 17What did the video for 'The Thunder Rolls', banned by TNN in 1991, depict?
Domestic violence
The video showed a cheating husband beating his wife, who then shoots him; TNN and CMT pulled it over the domestic violence, with Brooks himself playing the husband.
Q 18Which singer recorded "The Thunder Rolls" first, in 1988, only to shelve it?
Tanya Tucker
Tanya Tucker cut 'The Thunder Rolls' in 1988 but left it unreleased until her 1995 box set; Brooks, who co-wrote it with Pat Alger, took it to number one in 1991.
Q 19Which 1991 album was the first by a country artist to enter the Billboard 200 at number one?
Ropin' the Wind
Ropin' the Wind debuted atop the Billboard 200 in September 1991 on advance orders of 4 million, the first country album ever to enter that chart at number one.
Q 20Which Billy Joel song did Brooks cover as a single from his third album?
Shameless
'Shameless', from Billy Joel's 1989 album Storm Front, gave Brooks a number one in 1991; Joel joined him on stage at the 1997 Central Park concert.
He argued the practice cost songwriters royalties; antitrust lawsuits followed and the label backed down.
Q 24Brooks's 'Plus One' residency opened in 2023 at which Las Vegas resort?
Caesars Palace
Garth Brooks/Plus ONE opened at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in May 2023, a run of stripped-down shows with a small band, years after his earlier Encore Theater run.
Q 25On a 1994 tribute album, Brooks teamed with which band to record "Hard Luck Woman"?
Kiss
Brooks recorded 'Hard Luck Woman' with Kiss themselves as his backing band for the 1994 tribute album Kiss My Ass, and the pairing performed it on The Tonight Show.
Q 26The video for "Standing Outside the Fire" follows a student with Down syndrome who signs up for what?
The regular track meet instead of Special Olympics
In the video a boy with Down syndrome insists on entering the regular track meet instead of Special Olympics, falls, then gets up to finish as his father cheers him on.
Q 27His 2022 performance of which song at LSU's Tiger Stadium registered on the university's seismograph?
Callin' Baton Rouge
'Callin' Baton Rouge', played before LSU home games, shook the stadium hard enough on 30 April 2022 to register on campus seismographs, like the 1988 'Earthquake Game' touchdown.
Q 28'The Fever', a 1995 single from Fresh Horses, was a cover of which rock band?
Aerosmith
'The Fever' was written by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry for their 1993 album Get a Grip; Brooks's rodeo-themed rewrite stalled at number 23 in 1995.
Q 29The free 1997 Central Park concert dubbed 'Garthstock' was broadcast live on which network?
HBO
HBO carried the 7 August 1997 concert live, with Billy Joel and Don McLean as guests; the city estimated the crowd at about 980,000.
Q 30"To Make You Feel My Love", a number one for Brooks in 1998, was written by whom?
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan wrote 'Make You Feel My Love' for his 1997 album Time Out of Mind; Brooks's version, on the Hope Floats soundtrack, topped the country chart in 1998.