A Strong Week For The Superstars

It was a muscle flexing week for the biggest stars of Country. Not the stars of the moment but the stars with multi-decade careers.

Garth Brooks announcing a free concert October 24th in downtown Nashville. Using a cutting edge but a big, complicated social media app to give away the tickets. (Snapchat is not the easiest of the big social medias) ... Once you do figure out the navigation, Garth rewarded fans with some very good content.

Garth is now a State of Tennessee Goodwill Ambassador. The seven RIAA Diamond plaques on the wall got this idea rolling. Seven albums selling over 10 million copies ... A thank you to the fans ... Garth and the magical number seven.

Garth had some Hurricane troubles this week with his Orlando shows. Garth was flexible, moving dates around ... His crew makes things like that look easy...

The superstar couple, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, out-Garthed Garth with a surprise show at the Ryman under the assumed names Sam and Aubrey. Their real first names ... Sold out at $20 a ticket as fast as the computers could sell them. That was followed by announcing the return of Soul to Soul.

With only two days in between, those concerts go on pre-sale for some cities. That was a very well-kept secret.

The power couple then got stars on the Music City Walk of Fame and celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. They got multiple-day headlines...

Luke Bryan broke his clavicle on Thursday trying to get in on the news action. He played hurt for his opening night Farm Tour show in East Tennessee. Luke broke his clavicle in a bike accident.

Keith Urban got in on the action with his own free show in Music City... New Year's Eve. Outdoors on what has often been a chilly weather night ... Rain not being out of the question. Styx is also at this show ... Come on down...

It was something every day coming from the tried-and-true stars. The new kids on the block simply don't do a lot that gets in the PR world. Day in and day out, they just roll along, stayed under the radar.

A few stars celebrating #1s lately have declined to do anything but a photo op. The strong silent types. Let's see how that works out for them in the long run.

Wannabe stars could learn a lot just tracing the footsteps of Garth Brooks. I noticed early on that Taylor Swift did many of the things that made Garth famous. Not dealing with the media long-term is not a great strategy.

Talking about good media relations ... Lady Gaga, of all people, drove herself around in a truck ... wore a cowboy-like hat and walked a fan line at her Dive Bar show she streamed from Nashville. Walked up to the TV cameras with no setup and talked. What a concept ... Makes me shake my head at some of the "stars" walking Music Row and their ideas of media relations.

Note: FGL has always been very good with the media and that has paid off for them, too.

Picking favorites, calling TMZ or People with your news can boomerang real quick. The shark that will give you a ride will at some point eat you.

The old Al Wilson often-quoted song, "The Snake" ... You knew darn well I was a snake before you took me in.

Garth and Taylor are two of the biggest stars in Nashville history. They rode the media like a surfboard. Really amazing to watch. Fame comes and goes, but if you want a long career you don't go around crapping on the media. This was a good week for star media relations. Newcomers should try to copy these folks. They are the best in the business.

Oh yeah, one more thing ... Tim and Faith announced all the dates for the upcoming Soul to Soul tour at one time. Anyone interested could find it all on their website. Some radio station big-shots think their audiences are stupid and they would not let their air staff say the concert was coming to the city or area. The Internet, folks. How stupid is management and how foolish do their on-air people sound trying to keep the show a "secret." Some folks really don't have a clue, do they?