Garth Brooks wanted to play two shows at the Grizzly Rose but the sheriff’s office said no

Garth Brooks’ “secret” show at the Grizzly Rose on Sept. 3 was the worst-kept secret in Denver. The venue spent the week promoting a mysterious artist named “Yukon Jack,” and it took the internet roughly 11 seconds to figure out it was Brooks. Fans lined up in droves in the late-summer heat, and when the roughly 2,000-capacity honky-tonk filled to the brim, thousands more were turned away at the door.

But here’s the part that makes it an even more legendary Denver story: Brooks wanted to play a second show that same night. Grizzly Rose owner Scott Durland told 9NEWS that the first thing Brooks said when he walked past the massive line of shut-out fans was, “Let’s flip this building.” Durland asked what that meant. Brooks’ pitch: “How about I do an hour? And then you get everybody out, and then we let the people that are waiting in line come in and I’ll do another hour.”

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office, which was handling security for the show, shut the idea down for safety reasons. You can’t exactly do a full crowd swap at a packed bar on the fly, no matter how much goodwill is behind it. But the fact that Garth Brooks was ready to play two honky-tonk sets on a school night just so nobody went home disappointed? That’s the most Garth Brooks thing imaginable.

The whole evening came together in a matter of weeks, according to Durland. Brooks’ team called to say he wanted to play the iconic venue while he was in town for four sold-out Ball Arena shows over Labor Day weekend as part of his Blame It All On My Roots Tour. The secrecy was airtight, “nobody, nobody could know,” Durland said. “We couldn’t even tell our staff.” Brooks has said of Denver, “they treat me like I’m from there,” and honestly, after trying to double up a bar show at the Grizzly Rose just because he saw a line outside? Denver treats him like he’s from here because he acts like he is.