Garth Brooks Shares How Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk Got Its Name

Garth Brooks named his new Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk after his signature song instead of himself for good reason.

"The song outlives the artist," he says. "It's why it's not The Garth Bar."

Brooks' Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk resides at 411 Broadway in the heart of Nashville's lower Broadway's buzzing entertainment district. Paradise Park previously occupied the space, and when Brooks was approached with the opportunity to buy it, he asked himself: "Is Garth Brooks missing from Lower Broadway? No. How about 'Friends In Low Places?' Absolutely. 'Does Garth Brooks owe Nashville?' You bet Garth Brooks owes Nashville."

"This town has been amazing to me," Brooks says. "I know my bank account when I got here. I know where I was in my life when I got here, and I know where I'm at now. I'm looking at lower Broadway going, 'It's not the fact that Garth Brooks is missing, but 'Friends In Low Places' is missing down here, quite arguably maybe one of the most successful songs … in country music."

Brooks' longtime manager, Bob Doyle, was speaking at a college in the Midwest and asked students how many of them had heard of Garth Brooks. When three or four people raised their hands, Doyle asked who knew "Friends In Low Places." Every hand in the room shot up.

"I've said this before, and I'll say it again, 'You can like Garth Brooks. You can not like Garth Brooks, either way," Brooks says. "Chances are you've probably sang 'Friends In Low Places' at a wedding or something with everybody else."