Many years ago when Garth was red hot with “Low places” Garnick’s, which was opened by the brothers’ father in 1934, began a new trend in music shops. In 1990, Garnick’s was one of the first record shops to offer used CDs at a cheap price. The Capitol records representative saw they were selling used CDs. Keep in mind, that this was back in the $25 per CD price days. The store had maybe two or three used copies of the new Brooks’ CD for sale and a half dozen copies of the new CD for full price in the rack as well.

When the sales representative saw this, he lost his mind and accused Bob Garnick of ripping them off; “Garth won’t receive any royalties for the sale” he cried. As an industry insider Bob knew at the time Garth received about two dollars or so per CD sold, making him a millionaire many times over already. The rep cried foul and berated the shop for stealing from them and their artist. Other CDs from other labels were also for sale at the time, but Capitol was hot with the new Pink Floyd album and Garth plus other bands. Mind you also, it had been common practice for decades for shops like this to sell used records and tapes, so this was a natural and obvious extension for them.

Bob had been in the business for decades at this point and was a big name locally. Garnick’s also distributed concert tickets for The Dead and other bands directly in various venues, as well as shows for the Boston Garden. Bob was selling the used CDs for 10 bucks or so but did not have many for sale yet as it was a new idea to resell CDs. He thought little of the conversation as he had resold records and other music media for decades, so he saw no issue with selling used CDs. Also, this was long before digital music existed commonly, so people were still making mixtapes on Cassette and it was hard to get the same quality as CD duplication was still not commonly done.

A few days later, Bob got a phone call. “Is this Bob Garnick?” “Yes, it is Bob replied. “Hi Bob, this is GARTH BROOKS, Bob what you are doing is illegal and you are basically stealing from me and my label. If you don’t stop selling my used CDs, I have instructed Capitol records to stop distributing to your store.” The exact words spoken may be lost to time but the gist of the call was ‘our lawyers will be in touch if you don’t stop.’ So with a big close, Garth says “so Bob, will you be removing those CDs from your sales floor?” Bob replied, “No Mr. Brooks, I will not be doing that.” And promptly hung up the phone.