Garth Brooks cleared up his recent coronavirus scare on Wednesday and revealed that it was his daughter Allie Brooks who had tested positive for COVID-19.
The 58-year-old country music legend announced during a press conference that his 24-year-old daughter caught the virus earlier this month, which sent the whole family into quarantine.
Luckily, the singer said Allie had recovered, aside from a sore throat.
Health scare: Garth Brooks, 58, revealed Wednesday that his daughter Allie Brooks had COVID-19 earlier this month and had recovered; shown with Allie and Trisha Yearwood in 2017
Garth’s press conference was primarily to announce that he wanted to be taken out of consideration for the CMA Awards’ Entertainer of the Year prize after winning it seven times, most recently in 2019, but he also mentioned his family recent COVID-19 health scare.
‘As a parent, nobody knows what COVID is going to do in the future so you just watch over them,’ he said. ‘You pray a lot and hopefully she will come out of this thing with just that.’
The Friends In Low Places singer shared his sympathies with other families dealing with a sick child.
‘None of us has ever seen this before,’ he said. ‘As parents like you, like me, all you do is pray your knee bones off and hopefully following the guidelines so hopefully your family doesn’t have to experience this.’
Good news: Brooks said Allie (who performs as Allie Colleen) had a mild case and was better now aside from a sore throat; pictured in 2017
Brooks had originally planned to do a remote concert streamed via Facebook on July 7, but the plans were scuttled after he and his country singer wife Trisha Yearwood had to go into quarantine for two weeks after potentially coming into contact with the virus.
‘Out of an abundance of caution, Garth Brooks is moving his and Trisha Yearwood’s July 7th Facebook concert to a later date and postponing Inside Studio G for 2 weeks,’ the family announced at the time.
They didn’t specify what the exposure might have been, but on Wednesday Garth revealed that it was Allie’s husband Jonathan Roberts who had been in contact with the hitmaker, though both ultimately tested negative.
He said that Jonathan ‘works with us every day, so that was the possible scare.’
‘So everybody went and got tested. Everybody tested negative, so we were back up and running pretty quick,’ he clarified.
Relief: The country hitmaker and his wife Trisha Yearwood had to quarantine after they were exposed to Allie’s husband, though they all tested negative; pictured in November 2019
Safety first: Garth planned to broadcast a concert on July 7 via Facebook, but he had to postpone it in order to quarantine with Trisha
During the press conference, Brooks said he and Trisha used their quarantine period ‘as a time to face everything, ’cause now you can’t leave, you can’t walk away. This is probably, you know, the blessing and the curse.’
He said the pandemic months have been ‘probably been the most we’ve ever gone through as a couple.’
‘What’s on the other side is so great, especially when you are with the right one,’ he added lovingly.
Brooks and Yearwood have been married since 2005.
He shares three daughters, Taylor, 28, August, 26, and Allie, 24, with his first wife, songwriter Sandy Mahl, whom he was married to from 1986 until their separation in 1999.
Allie has started up a music career of her own and performs under the name Allie Colleen.
Winning streak: Brooks announced Wednesday that he was withdrawing from the CMA Awards’ Entertainer of the Year prize, which he won last year; shown in 2018
New blood: His 2019 win, his seventh, divided fans, many of whom thought Carrie Underwood or Eric Church should have won for the first time; Carrie pictured in November 2019
The majority of Garth’s chat with journalist was to announce he was withdrawing from consideration for the CMA Awards’ Entertainer of the Year award.
Though he won it last year, many country fans thought the other nominees, including Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Keith Urban and Chris Stapleton, were ready to claim the award.
‘There’s one tweet in there that really stuck in my head,’ Brooks said remotely. “It said, “Hey, man. This guy, why doesn’t he just step down (and leave) the entertainer for the next generation?” 100 percent agree.
‘The last thing I want to do is seem ungrateful,’ he continued, adding that ‘it’s time for somebody else to hold that award … ’cause they’re all out there busting their butts.
‘With all the love in the world, we are officially pulling ourselves out of Entertainer of the Year,’ he said.
Friends in low places: The Friends In Low Places singer wasn’t opposed to winning an award, suggesting the CMA could give him an Entertainer of the Year Emeritus award; shown in 1990
The Friends In Low Places singer wasn’t completely opposed to winning an award, suggesting the CMA could give him with an Entertainer of the Year Emeritus award, though he acknowledged that the association ‘can’t just create a title and give it to somebody, because they want to treat everybody fairly.’
‘If I had my dream, that’s how we’d handle this situation right here,’ he said.
Though the singer made clear he doesn’t want the trophy for 2020, it may be out of his hands, as the CMA organizers aren’t allowed to change the nominees.
Instead, enough voting members would have to exclude him from the category in order for him to miss out.