By: Alison Bonaguro on cmt.com
First, Garth Brooks wanted to know where everyone was celebrating their official #NationalDiveBarDay on Sunday.
Then, he had some Dive Bar news that was embraced as warmly as his Blake Shelton duet of the same name.
“We’re announcing the Dive Bar Tour,” Brooks said on his Facebook Live video late on Sunday (July 7). “We don’t announce the bar. We (only) get to announce the city.
As dive bars across the country face extinction, Brooks is hoping this tour will inject some new life into old haunts.
“Sometimes, man, that’s your church. A church is: people who are like you, that are searching, and sometimes you need a shoulder to lean on. That’s what a dive bar is. That’s what a good one is anyway. We’re gonna go to seven of them. It’s gotta be Chicago,” he said of his first stop on July 15, adding that on Monday morning, country radio would be announcing the actual bar.
If he could pick the dive bar to play in Nashville, Brooks said, it would be Layla’s. Because that’s where “Friends in Low Places” and “Callin’ Baton Rouge” were both born.
Brooks also shared that he and Shelton will be singing the new song live in Boise on Friday night, to officially record the live version.