Garth Brooks Reveals Why He Once Signed Autographs for 23 Hours: 'I'd Love to Tell You It Was Out of Love'

Kevin Mazur/BBMA2020/Getty Garth Brooks

To Garth Brooks — his fans are the boss.

In an interview on Tuesday with Set It Straight: Myths and Legends, a podcast hosted by Midland on their debut episode — Garth Brooks opened up about the time he spent 23 hours signing autographs with no breaks during Nashville's Fan Fest.

"I'd love to tell you that it was just done out of love and stuff but the real story behind it was we had a new regime at the label come in," said Brooks, 59. "There were rumors that older acts were going to go out [and] new ones were actually going to come in and replace them."

"Which is normal always at labels but one of the older acts was me," he continued.

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This is when the country singer realized he needed to act on it.

"Our bosses are not the record labels. Our bosses are not country radio or the CMAs. As much as I love those people, our bosses are those people on the other side of radio," said Brooks. "Those people that show up in those seats. I said, 'Let's go see what the bosses think.'"

During the interview, the country singer also explained how he feels country music differs from other genres — noting that in country, "they want you to be the guy next door."

"The cool thing about country music is they want you to be as normal, as regular as you can be, but at the same time, they're going to give you numbers that can compete with any pop act that's ever walked on stage," said Brooks.

"So I love the fact that we're in that beautiful, really kind of honest thing," he continued.

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Earlier this month, Brooks canceled five stadium shows due to concerns over the COVID pandemic and spreading the delta variant.

"In July, I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us. Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part," Brooks said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

Midland announced their Set It Straight podcast with PEOPLE earlier this month, sharing an exclusive trailer.

"Set It Straight: Myths and Legends is a chance for us to dive into the fascinating folklore and fables in and around country music and gives us an excuse to hang and informally chat with some of our biggest musical and artistic heroes," the group's frontman Mark Wystrach said in a press release.