Garth Brooks was one of the 43rd class of Kennedy Center Honorees and has been involved in honoring past Kennedy Center Honors winners in the past years, including honoring James Taylor (2016), Billy Joel (2013), Loretta Lynn (2003) and helping to pay tribute to previous Mark Twain Prize recipient Jay Leno in 2014.
The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts who have been deemed to contribute a lot to American culture. Joan Baez and Midori also received medallions during the ceremony.
2021 Kennedy Center Honors
The Kennedy Center Honors is just one of the many awards and acknowledgements that the country singer has received for his decades of life in the spotlight as a bestselling country singer/songwriter.
Brooks received the award on Friday May 21, alongside actor Dick Van Dyke, dancer/choreographer/actress Debbie Allen, singer/songwriter Joan Baez and Violinist Midori.
The Honors originally took place in early December, but was postponed from its late 2020 slot to 2021 due to COVID concerns.
Prior recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors Gloria Estefan and Yo-Yo Ma hosted the show and performed respectively. Footage from the events will later be broadcast as a CBS television special airing on June 6.
Country Icon Garth Brooks Celebrates His Honors
Garth Brooks, who attended the event with his wife Trisha Yearwood, shared a picture he took with his wife. He spotted the rainbow-colored medallion in the picture and captioned it with words from civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou, “To loosely quote Maya Angelou I stand here as one but I stand here for the people who have carried me to this point. Grateful!”
Garth Brooks’ wife, Trisha Yearwood, and fellow country musician shared a picture of the signature Kennedy Center Honors ribbon resting on Brooks’ black cowboy hat on her page with a few words as caption: “No Coffee Talk today. We celebrated a little too late last night! xo.”
Garth Brooks is not new to being recognized for his work in the country music scene as he has been nominated for the Grammy Award 14 times with two wins. His other achievements include an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012 and into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.
He is also the first and only artist to have 9 albums certified diamond by the RIAA for the sales of over 10 million albums each. He is among the best-selling solo artists in American history, having been certified by the RIAA for selling over 157 million albums. In March 2020, he received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
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