Garth Brooks’ Utah fans had to fight the bots. The country superstar made up for the struggle

After just his second song of the night, “Rodeo,” Garth Brooks looked around the Salt Lake City arena where he’d set an attendance record a decade ago and seemed genuinely taken aback by the roar of the Thursday crowd.

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Standing on his in-the-round stage, a setup that allows him to play to every part of the arena, the wide-eyed country superstar in jeans and a long-sleeve, black-collared shirt held out his arms as he took in all of the cheers and applause.

Brooks seems to possess a sense of awe that people still show up to hear him play. Multiple times during the one hour and 45 minute show, he seemed just as starstruck by his fans as his fans were by him.

“You guys have been working all day and you’re still like this?” he said in disbelief at one point.

It really shouldn’t be a surprise to Brooks at all — especially when it comes to Utah. In 2015, he played four sold-out shows at the Delta Center. Four years ago, he did two back-to-back shows at the 50,000-seat Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Yet on Thursday night, in his return to the Delta Center, Brooks spent much of his show oscillating between shock and joy as he took in the crowd’s reactions.

Somehow, after more than three decades of touring — and being backed by the same talented musicians — performing hasn’t gotten old for the 64-year-old singer.

And it definitely hasn’t gotten old for his fans.

‘You’re doubly blessed if they come back’

If it weren’t for the fact that Brooks’ show is a well-oiled machine — he knows exactly when to throw his guitar all the way across the stage to an expectant crew member or to bring out the water bottles to splash people in the first few rows — it wouldn’t be crazy to assume he’s only performed a handful of times, considering his high level of excitement.

On Thursday night, he smiled and sprinted around the stage as if it was his first time playing for a massive crowd. He was often giddy, like a little kid who couldn’t believe all of these people were paying attention to him.

Within the first few seconds of his show, he’d already run around the 360-degree stage and addressed every part of the arena. During “Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House,” he blew kisses for a few fans who were taking a video. While singing “The Beaches of Cheyenne,” he waved to the people who were the farthest back in the arena.

As he performed “Unanswered Prayers” sans band, he actually stopped the song for a brief moment just to say hi to someone in the crowd. He also let the audience finish out the song for him.

The show became a singalong very early on — an inevitable reality with a hit like “Two Pina Coladas.” And Brooks was more than OK with standing back and letting the fans sing.

He didn’t seem to take any moment for granted — and the same goes for his band.

Brooks’ longtime fiddler, National Fiddler Hall of Famer Jimmy Mattingly, broke several hairs on his bow as he sawed away to “Callin’ Baton Rouge.” Four of Brooks’ original band members, dating back to the late 1980s, are still playing with him. Brooks also had two session players who have played for years on his albums in tow.

Even with his supersized stardom, and the consistency of his band, Brooks seems to believe that nothing is a guarantee in this industry — the older you get the fewer chances you have, he said at one point.

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“In this business, people, you’re blessed if they show up. You’re doubly blessed if they come back,” he told his Salt Lake City fans. “Thank you, that is very, very sweet.”

And Brooks seemed especially grateful to his Thursday night crowd, because he knew they had to fight extra hard to get there.

‘We know what you went through’

Last month, the “Friends in Low Places” singer shut down the online sale for his third show in Salt Lake City after just 30 minutes, citing “bot interference.”

That third show had been added after his first two shows at the Delta Center quickly sold out in a sale that was “disrupted by bot activity,” as the Deseret News reported.

To keep fighting the bots, Brooks added a fourth and final show to his Salt Lake run — which became his new opening night in the city.

In theory, this meant that many of the fans attending Brooks’ opening show on Thursday were the ones who had the hardest fought battle against the bots. And Brooks made it clear he was grateful for their persistence.

“People, we know what you went through,” he told the cheering crowd.

Throughout the show, a high-energy Brooks did just about everything he could to make up for the struggle — and the fans were quick to forgive.

In the last decade, the country singer has released three albums. There’s newer music he could play, but, as he said early on during the show, he knows what his fans want. He sticks to the classics, and as a result, everything he played Thursday night came from the period between his debut record and 1997.

Over the years, Brooks has more or less kept a standard setlist with very little deviation. He said as much the last time he played in Salt Lake City when he described his show as being the same guys, the same songs and the same fun.

But the magic of it all, the magic of Brooks, is that each show somehow manages to feel completely different.

The biggest reason for that is his fans. The country artist feeds off of the crowd’s energy. After he closed out a 90-minute set with “The Dance,” he yelled with gratitude at his fans.

“People, sometimes a traveler can tell you stuff you don’t know living in your own city. … I don’t know if you know it, but take it from me, take it from all of us, something magic is happening in this city!“ he shouted as the band continued to play. “Every time we play here, it’s the best freaking night you can possibly imagine!”

Even after that, though, Brooks still wasn’t ready to be done. As usual, he came back to the stage without his band to scour the crowd for posters and take requests. Only after creating these one-of-a-kind moments for individual fans did he feel like he could hang his hat up for the night.

He’ll put it back on Friday night for a second show in Salt Lake City. And then a third on Saturday. And a fourth on Sunday.

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And each time he does, you can count on him playing like it’s his first.