One of the best exports that the state of Oklahoma has released upon the world is the country music sensation Garth Brooks. Brooks was my absolute favorite singer from about the ages of nine to twelve, and I was so obsessed that I had posters of him all over my room. I had all of his cassette tapes (then, later, his CDs; I still have those around here somewhere), videotaped him every time he was on television, and even dressed up as him to lip synch during a school talent contest.

Yeah, I think Garth was my first obsession.

I absolutely loved his music, which wasn’t just about loving mama or drinking or Elvis; in fact, it wasn’t about most of this stuff at all. He had a lot of love songs, sure, but he had some gorgeous songs that weren’t like any other country songs at all—songs that supported the gay community, songs about falling in love with an older woman, and songs about just standing up for what you believe in. If more country singers created songs like these instead of many of the hate-filled diatribes we’ve been hearing since 9/11, I would be a much bigger supporter of the genre.

I remember writing to Garth as a kid—I even remember the address!—and receiving a letter and an autographed photo back from his agent or whomever. I was disappointed to not hear back from him, of course, but it was still pretty awesome to get that photograph. I wonder what happened to it…

Like any other superstar, Garth Brooks has had his moments of non-perfection. Sure, Garth may or may not have cheated on his wife and family, but that was his personal life; he never tried interfering on other people’s lives (other than the time when he agreed to let Wal-Mart exclusively release his music, while he may have or may not have known that the company has a pretty low record of supporting the GLBT community, women, and pretty much all non-white male workers, not to mention furthering the rate of poor people in each community, which Garth couldn’t possibly support) and he definitely doesn’t campaign to put the government into people’s bedrooms or wombs—which is more than I can say about other annoyingly prevalent and obnoxious performers (I’m looking at you, Toby Keith).

I remember when country music meant something to the working class; now it seems like the singers want to promote big business owners and politicians who work to crush anyone but the rich. When did that start? I’m not really sure, but I’m thinking that when “everything changed” after 9/11, country music was a pretty darn big part of “everything.”

Garth, wherever you are, you were an inspiration. Perhaps today’s homophobic singers and violence instigators could take a page out of your book and spread some peace instead of hate these days. I don’t know if you have plans of recording anything else anytime soon, but I’m sure your fans would love to hear anything (okay, perhaps not the Chris Gaines stuff) you’ve got to sing.