Garth Brooks preps for four Fresno concerts

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The man who made it cool to have "friends in low places" is returning to the Central Valley. Country superstar Garth Brooks kicks off the first of four weekend concerts Friday night at the Save Mart Center.

"People might go 'really Fresno?'" Brooks said. "But these people know their country music here. They're very intelligent with their country music here. They come to party and they do it the right way, that's my kind of place."

"It's Garth's first time back in Fresno since he performed at Selland Arena in 1997. His four concerts this time around have sold more than 50,000 tickets.

"Try to remember in our hey-day in the 90s, we did 100 cities and sold 5 million tickets," Brooks said. "This is our 48th or 49th city and have sold 4.8 million. I feel very, very lucky."

The big difference this time around is his wife, Trisha Yearwood, a country star in her own right joins him on tour.

"We try to get out and see what it is we need to see," she said. "We try to figure it out what is the thing we need to do when were in town. There's about 50 of us so if you see us around town - most of the crew wears black shirts you'll know it's us. 'Who's that little black cloud running around?' It's the crew, it's us."

Garth is known for his high-energy shows - something he admits is getting a little more difficult to do this late in his career.

"All I noticed is when I see it on film I'm not moving as fast as I think I am," Brooks said. "I feel like I'm flying up there but I'm like, 'Dude, cmon,' but it's a lot of fun."

Garth and Trisha have an event planned Saturday morning with a local boys and girls club before their back to back concerts at night.