Garth Brooks' studio band The G-Men has been with him since the very beginning. Playing on all of his albums, beginning with his self-titled 1989 debut, they helped craft the sound that set U.S. sales records and altered the course of country music.

While working as a bouncer during his senior year of college, Brooks was required to toss an unruly woman from the Tumbleweed Ballroom in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Little did he know that that woman, Sandy Mahl, would become his wife just a couple of years later.

In 1991, during a concert in Dallas, Garth ended the show by smashing his guitar into pieces and passing them out to fans in the first row. He would later donate the patched-up instrument to the Smithsonian.

"And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end, the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance

Brooks was strongly influenced by the 1970s singer-songwriter movement, especially the works of James Taylor, whom he idolized and named his first child after: Taylor Mayne Pearl Brooks (born 1992).

After he finished recording the song, Brooks suggested that they add the sound of thunder. Fortunately, producer Allen Reynolds had that sound on hand already from a previous recording session with the Memphis Boys for their song "Delta Rain".

In 1999, the San Diego Padres signed him to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training, where he played mostly left field and finished with one hit in 22 tries for a .045 batting average. The next year, he signed with the New York Mets, resulting in a zero-for-seventeen batting record. He took one more shot at the big leagues with the Kansas City Royals in 2004.

When news spread that LeDoux needed a transplant, Brooks quietly offered to donate a portion of his own liver. Although Brooks' liver was incompatible, LeDoux was able to undergo a transplant in 2000 and release two more albums before dying of cancer in 2005.

"The Thunder Rolls" was originally recorded by Tanya Tucker, but she didn't release the song until it appeared on her self-titled 1995 box set. Her version included a fourth verse which Brooks himself intended to use but cut at the suggestion of producer Allen Reynolds.

"Three thirty in the morning
Not a soul in sight
The city's lookin' like a ghost town
On a moonless summer night"