The country crooner and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, are taking requests for their CBS holiday special!
Both Garth Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, were thrilled to learn how "The Dance" recently impacted Kelly Clarkson's life.
On Monday's episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the singer-turned-host revealed to Brooks that his 1989 hit song was helping her get through her divorce from husband Brandon Blackstock.
Some lyrics in particular spoke to Clarkson. "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'da had to miss / The dance," Brooks croons on the track.
"I couldn't quite nail down the feeling. You don't want to crap on it. You don't want to say, 'That didn't count or matter,' but you don't know what to put in it because it didn't work out how you wanted," Clarkson told Brooks of her breakup. "Anyway, I kid you not, I was listening to my playlist and 'The Dance' came on and I was like, 'No, that's the thing. That's it!'"
A few days later, Brooks tells ET's Kevin Frazier how if felt to get such a compliment from "Kelly 'fricken' Clarkson!"
"The fact that she says it as a fan makes you feel as an artist like, 'Hey, maybe you’re down here doing what you’re supposed to be doing down here," he shares.
Yearwood agrees, adding, "I think it's a testament to the power of music because songs mean different things to all of us depending on what we're going through. So that song, 'The Dance,' is probably the song that is most played at people's weddings and funerals. Then when Kelly's going through divorce, it's like ...everybody has their own story and that's the cool thing about music is that you can find a way for it to fit into your own story."
The 56-year-old singer also reveals the song that Brooks performs that always gets to her. "One of my songs is his song, 'To Make You Feel My Love.' When he does that song live, I don't care where I am in the building, I will beeline if I hear him start that song," Yearwood admits. "That song, to me, written by Bob Dylan, will always be Garth to me, for me."
The country music power couple will continue to comfort fans through music with their special, Garth & Trisha Live! A Holiday Concert Event, held at their home studio and airing Dec. 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT on CBS and CBS All Access.
As for what viewers can expect, Yearwood, who released The Sweetest Gift holiday album in 1994, quips that she has "no idea" -- but fans will be able to request songs. She also notes that as of Wednesday morning, they were up to 15,000 requests with people sending them in by using #GarthAndTrishaLive on any social media platform.
"It’s live!" she notes of the special. "Garth was the one who said this would be a really good idea to do this live-by-request thing. ...This is all Christmas stuff so we've been trying to, like, woodshed our favorite Christmas songs in hopes that people ask for those. But it's gonna be very off-the-cuff and we'll all sink or swim together."
When it comes to their go-to Christmas songs, Yearwood calls her husband out for continuously singing "Feliz Navidad."
"You've been singing that for four hours, and he's gonna be for the rest of the day," she quips before adding that she does have a song in mind to perform during the special. "I've requested that we do [a song] that I haven’t seen come through that is a song that's not typically a duet. I'm not even gonna talk about it. I'm not gonna say it because it's gonna be a surprise."
Brooks teases, "That's gonna be a monster if we can do it."
One thing that will be different this holiday season for the couple is that their daughters will not be home for Christmas this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yearwood says they did not even get a tree because their big tradition is decorating it with their children.
"We're gonna FaceTime with them that morning, but we're gonna save that tradition for when we can all be together again," she tells ET.
Brooks adds, "Amen. We're now gonna modify it, we're not going to water it down. We're either all together or we're not. So tree's not there. The crazy thing is, every time I don't see the tree there, I think of our girls. So it lets me get to think of them as much as if the tree would be there with all the stories and stuff."
While there's lots to celebrate this time of year, Brooks and Yearwood are also remembering fellow country star Charley Pride, who recently died at age 86 of the coronavirus.
"I think any time you’re around somebody that is like Charley Pride, it's a blessing to be around them," Brooks says of the country music legend. "...Guys like Charley Pride live forever and I know he'll live forever in me for sure."
While fans anxiously await Brooks and Yearwood's CBS special airing this Sunday, check out another one of ET's exclusive interviews with the couple below.
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