Garth Brooks’ ‘Friends In Low Places’ Re-Release Put On Hold
Last week, country music fans got some exciting news — Garth Brooks was planning to re-release “Friends in Low Places” with some of country music’s biggest stars.
The remake was going to be featured on a No Fences silver-anniversary reissue to be released in November. Originally, a non-traditional retailer was going to buy at least 1 million units of the new No Fences. The retailer asked that publishers agree to a discounted royalty rate in return for the 1 million buy. A majority of the publishers agreed to the rate, but some would only agree to a lesser discount.
Songwriter Pat Alger, who co-wrote two songs on No Fences, believes that any new material should be at the full royalty rate, but doesn’t have any issue with a discounted rate on the older songs.. “Garth Brooks has done more to generate income from these songs than anybody else. On the first several uses, we got paid full rate and then he started coming up with different packages — this may be the sixth or seventh time he’s found a way to re-energize this 25-year-old material,” he says. “In a day when 50,000 sales really impresses somebody, we’re being guaranteed over a million sales on this. As a songwriter who has watched his income diminish, to give a half rate to someone who’s going to guarantee me a million or a million and a half copies, doesn’t seem like I’m giving up much.”
With the future of the re-release hanging in the balance, Brooks is taking the responsibility on his shoulders. “This is 100% my fault. I’ve done this deal for 20 years,” he says. “I know how this deal works. What caught me off guard — I just never guessed — is that the rate would go up.”
Until the publishers and the retailer can work out a deal, it looks like the star-studded “Friends In Low Places’ reboot will be on hold.
