Garth Brooks launches his comeback tour outside Chicago Sept. 4
Daniel Boczarski/Getty
updated 10/31/2014 AT 02:55 PM EDT
•originally published 10/31/2014 AT 04:15 PM EDT
The singer, dressed in a yellow Nashville Predators sweatshirt (a nod to the city he and wife Trisha Yearwood will soon relocate to from Oklahoma), talked about his time in the studio, why he didn't write many of the album's songs and how he picked a picture for the cover – "It was the only one in the session that I just had one chin," he confessed. "When people see me in person they'll wonder what happened."
He also poked fun at himself when he paid tribute to his wife. "My wife is the cool one. Wherever we go she knows everybody and everybody knows her. At home in Oklahoma, I'm Mr. Yearwood. When we travel, I'm just her arm candy."
The superstar turned serious when it came to the music itself, noting that of the 14 songs on the album, he only had a hand in three. "When I was off, I was really off, being a parent 24/7," he said. "I wasn't writing. I didn't trust my pen yet on this album, I'm not there yet. So I went with the songs that I wish I could have written, that say what I want to say. This album is who I am right now."
One song in particular meant more than any other, and it was the only track of the 11 played from the album that he chose to grab his guitar and perform live with.
"Everyone knows how much I loved my mom," he said, pausing to take a deep breath. "Why no one has ever written this song before I don't know, why I never wrote it before I don't know, but I'm grateful Don Sampson and Wynn Varble did. It's a conversation between God and a little unborn baby. It took me almost a month to get it together to record it. My producer finally told me to man up and do it. I'm gonna try to do it for you now." By the time Brooks finished "Mom," there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
Like all Brooks albums, Man Against the Machine includes "a tribute to the men and women in cowboy hats, 'Cowboys Forever,' " and ends with an R&B-inspired scorcher. "My favorite song on the album is always the last one," Brooks said. " 'Tacoma' is last because nothing else could follow it. When you're square and white like me, you pretty much live your life that way so it's fun to let loose and wail on a song like this."
Brooks left the building shortly after the show for Lexington, Kentucky, where he'll spend the weekend with his cooler half, performing four shows in two days at Rupp Arena as part of the Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood. Man Against the Machine is out Nov. 11.
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