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Garth Brooks’ New Album ‘Completes The Circle’

Garth Brooks’ new album, Time Traveler, has found its place in the context of his life and career thanks to its inclusion (and release) in his new Limited Series box…

Garth Brooks smiling in a black button down shirt and a black cowboy hat
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Garth Brooks' new album, Time Traveler, has found its place in the context of his life and career thanks to its inclusion (and release) in his new Limited Series box set.

Garth said of the seven-disc package, "This is the third and final box set of our career. I like how that completes the circle, the new music tying in. It kind of completes the set, for me, with the old stuff."

The package is available exclusively at Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's.

Time Traveler, of course, features "Rodeo Man," Garth's new hit duet with Ronnie Dunn, as well as a pairing with Kelly Clarkson ("The Ship and The Bottle"), an update of David Allen Coe's "The Ride" that tells more of the song's original story, and "Me Without You."

Those songs join six others on the new album, while Time Traveler joins Man Against Machine, Gunslinger, Fun, and Triple Live inside the new Limited Series set.

Brooks released the new song, "Rodeo Man," featuring his buddy and fellow Oklahomain Ronnie Dunn. Garth told us of the new song, "I love everything about 'Rodeo Man,' from that Quentin Tarantino[-sounding guitar] lick at the start, all the way through the solo. I don't know, man. Ronnie Dunn's voice. It's just fun. And it really, really fits the life of a 'rodeo man,' which pretty much is from the time it starts to the time it's finished. It's just 100 miles an hour."

Brooks said, "Ronnie and I knew of each other back in the late-'80s playing all the Oklahoma honky-tonks. Then, of course, how could you miss him with Kix Brooks and him? We were kind of running side-by-side on this. But it's funny – at this part of both of our careers, getting to sing together is a first, but it is something that is long, long overdue for me."

Many country music superstars choose their middle names over their given first names. It is hard to imagine country music superstar Sam Smith (Tim McGraw's given name) and his superstar wife, Audrey Faith Perry (Faith Hill). Or how about sold-out stadium shows from a guy named Troyal (Garth Brooks)? And instead of two Lukes (Bryan and Combs), there would be two Thomas' (Rhett and Bryan).

Many celebrities change their name to fit who they have become, but in country music, the go-to name change for a superstar is to simply go with your middle name.

We take a look at five country superstars that go by their given middle names.

Kenneth Eric Church

Eric Church

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Can you image Kenny Church? Eric, born in n Granite Falls, North Carolina, was named after his father, Ken. Church worked with his dad at Clayton Marcus, a furniture upholstery company where his father was president.

Thomas Luther Bryan

Luke Bryan

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Luke was named after his father, Tommy, who was a peanut farmer in Leesburg, Georgia.

Troyal Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks

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Garth was named for his father, Troyal Raymond Brooks Jr. He is the elder Troyal's youngest child. His mother, Colleen McElroy Carroll (who passed away in 1999), was a 1950s-era country singer who recorded on Capitol Records, the same label that Garth recorded on.

Frederick Dierks Bentley

Dierks Bentley

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Dierks has used his middle name publically since his music career began. The name Dierks is his maternal great-grandmother's surname. His parents' names are Leon Fife Bentley (who passed away in 2012) and Catherine Childs.

Samuel Timothy Smith

Tim McGraw

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Tim McGraw was not born as a McGraw, and Timothy was his middle name. He changed his last name at age 11 when he learned the identity of his real father, major league baseball pitcher "Tug" McGraw, who passed away in 2004.

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.