Garth Brooks

American country-western musician considered the most-loved and best-paid in history. Beginning with his No. 1 hit in 1989, "If Tomorrow Never Comes," to 1998 his multimillion-dollar career portfolio includes 15 No.1 hits, 67 million albums sold, a touring company, film and video production, publishing and merchandising paraphernalia. In April 1991 he won six Academy of Country Music Awards including Entertainer of the Year.

His mom, Colleen, was an aspiring country star in the '50s who gave up her career when she met and married his dad, Troyal, who worked as a draftsman for 33 years. With five siblings, three from his mom's previous marriage, he grew up in the small farming town of Yukon, OK. All the kids excelled. One sister, Betsy Smittle, played guitar, singing and winning talent shows. She later became his bass player. (In 1993 he outed her as a lesbian without her permission.) Garth's main love was sports and in high school he was a four-letter man. He attended Oklahoma State University on an athletic scholarship where he majored in advertising and marketing.

After graduating he went on to pursue his first interest, music, becoming a professional musician in 1985. After his first No.1 hit, by the early '90s he had three albums standing out in the Top-20. In April 1991 he won six Academy of Country Music award including Entertainer of the Year. His album of "Sevens," released on 25 November 97 sold 3.4 million copies in its first five weeks, though sales dropped off drastically after Christmas. On 9 February 98 Brooks went on the TV show "Oprah" and pledged to donate proceeds from "Sevens" to her Angel Network of charities if she'd plug the album on her show every day for a week. Oprah did and Brooks donated $500,000. During the "Oprah" week, sales tripled and the album went from No.24 to No.4.