Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962), best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the 1990s. Garth Brooks still continues to sell well and according to Nielsen Soundscan, his albums sales through October 2011 are at 68,551,000, which makes him the best-selling albums artist in the United States in the SoundScan era, a title held since 1991, well over 5 million ahead of his nearest rival, The Beatles. Troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks officially retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2009. In December 2009, he began a 5 year concert deal with the Encore Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
