In 1999, Garth Brooks took a creative detour that left many puzzled. He released Garth Brooks in…the Life of Chris Gaines, a record by an altar ego, Chris Gaines, a long-lost rock artist. The album was meant to be a best-of Chris Gaines, the soundtrack to an eventual tie-in biopic. Though the intention was to be hard rock, the resulting album was more of a pop affair, and Brooks wanted it to be thought of as such, opting not to promote it to country radio. A new installment in the 33 1/3 book series, Garth Brooks in…the Life of Chris Gaines takes a look at this unique phenomenon.

As much of a whim as the album seems to be, Brooks took it quite seriously. He talked to the press about the idea, leading that he was going to invest heavily into the concept, with a feature film and touring to follow. That didn’t happen, and the album quietly disappeared, falling out of print and not being offered on streaming services. Fans were confused; the initial album was titled This Is Chris Gaines without mention of Brooks, and the songs were different for him, traditional rock, though with a softer bent than the long haired hard rocking looking Brooks that features on the cover. After the multiplatinum success of previous album Sevens, the two million sales of Garth Brooks in…the Life of Chris Gaines seems like a failure, even though, in fact, that’s quite successful. The lack of success and confusion it caused led Brooks to abandon the project.

Perhaps because there’s not much to the story of Chris Gaines the album, writer Stephen Deusner invokes his creative whimsy for the rest of the book. The remaining two sections of the book are pure fiction. Section Two is a retelling of the Chris Gaines story, as if he were a real artist, and is full of plenty of plot twists and story development that keeps it from being too self-indulgent. The third section involves an imaginary lecture at a Pop Culture conference, when a mystery guest talks about the social implications of the Chris Gaines scenario. It’s interesting, but inessential.

Setting aside the fictional parts, Deusner does a good job of detailing the bizarre story of Chris Gaines, making this an enjoyable and informative read. 

Purchase: Amazon

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