grath brooks' gaines is emi's 3 million loss
GARTH BROOKS' attempt to reinvent himself as a pop singer last year
ended in a ?3 million failure.
Brooks created his alter ego Chris Gaines (pictured) last year,
shedding his stetson hat and cowboy boots for a crash diet,
a black wig and a goatee beard.
A fortune was spent creating a whole new
background for Gaines, including a near-fatal car
crash and a mythical debut solo album which sold
16 million copies.
But when Gaines' genuine first album was released
it became apparent that all that money had been
wasted. The album 'Garth Brooks In...The Life Of
Chris Gaines', a mixture of pop, rock and rap sold
only 2 million copies. Brooks' country albums
normally average sales of 7 million.
Brooks is the best-selling solo artist of all time.
And the announcement earlier this month that his
latest country release, 'Double Live', was the
biggest-selling live album, underlined the huge flop
of the Gaines project.
Pat Quigley, president of Brooks' label Capitol
Records Nashville, a divison of EMI, backed the
Chris Gaines project, which was supposed to be a
musical version of the success novelist Stephen
King acheived while writing under the name of
Richard Bachman.
A music industry source said: "Pat basically put his
butt on the line for Garth's folly. The total album
cost was ?.3 million and Quigley spent ?.9 million
promoting it."
The Gaines project upset other country stars who
felt that the record company's money could have
been better spent. Quigley is expected to be
demoted later this year to marketing vice president.
Last November Brooks said: "I'm in a situation
where I've made a very controversial album and it's
selling more newspapers than it is music and I'm
getting the crap kicked out of me. It's the first time
I've ever been in this situation and it's hard."
--
The story is a sad one, told many times.
The story of my life in trying times.
Just add water, stir in lime.
How the west was won and where it got us.
R.E.M.
--
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