Garth Brooks to Donate Objects to Smithsonian's National Museum of American History

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In a special donation ceremony, award-winning singer and songwriter Garth Brooks will donate objects from his acclaimed career. The donation will include his first gold record received for the album "Garth Brooks;" one of his trademark black cowboy hats, a guitar Brooks smashed during his first NBC TV special in Dallas in 1991 and later repaired; and handwritten lyric sheets for the song, "Beaches of Cheyenne." The museum will also collect the plaque for the special Career Award Brooks received in November by the Recording Industry Association America as the new top-selling solo artist in recorded history.

Successfully integrating rock elements into his recordings and live performances, Brooks rapidly dominated the country singles and country album charts and quickly crossed over into the mainstream pop arena, exposing a larger audience to country music than previously thought possible. Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, with some 70 hit singles, 15 charted albums and more than 123 million albums sold in the United States alone.

A selection from the new collection will be on temporary display in the museum's "Treasures of American History" exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum in January 2008. The exhibition features more than 150 icons from the museum's extensive collections while its building is closed for renovation.