Chris Gaines
Chris Gaines |
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Chris Gaines is a fictional alternative rock singer created as an alter ego for a movie project entitled The Lamb by Garth Brooks.
History
Chris Gaines began in 1994 when Brooks, attempting to expand his career boundaries, collaborated with his production company Red Strokes Entertainment and Paramount Pictures to develop a movie Brooks was meant to star in, as Chris Gaines. The Lamb was to have revolved around Chris Gaines, a fictional rock singer and his emotionally conflicted life as a musician in the public eye. To create buzz for the project, Brooks took on the identity of Gaines in the October 1999 album Garth Brooks in ... The Life of Chris Gaines, which was intended as a 'pre-soundtrack' to the film. Brooks also subsequently appeared as Gaines in a television mockumentary for the VH1 series Behind The Music and as the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live which Brooks hosted as himself.
Brooks' endless promotion of the album and the film did not seem to stir much excitement and the success of the Chris Gaines experiment became fairly evident mere weeks after the album was released. Although critics admired Brooks for taking a musical risk, the majority of the American public was either totally bewildered, or completely unreceptive to the idea of Garth Brooks as anything but a pop-country singer. Many of his fans also felt that by supporting the Gaines project they would lose the "real" Garth Brooks. Sales of the album were unspectacular and although it made it to #2 on the pop album chart, expectations had been higher and retail stores began heavily discounting their oversupply. Poor sales of the album and lack of interest in the film brought the film production to an indefinite hiatus in February 2001 and Gaines quickly and quietly faded into obscurity.
The mediocre success of the Chris Gaines persona has become the butt of many jokes within the media and country music industry. The opening night of Brooks' November 2007 nine concert stand at the Sprint Center in Kansas City was "protested" by a local group of performance artists handing out "Missing Person" flyers for Gaines as a part of "The Chris Gaines Initiative." Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead recently admitted to Rolling Stone magazine that he had intended to incorporate a "Chris Gaines type of story" into Radiohead's latest release In Rainbows, however due to lack of support from their label (and Yorke's fellow band members) the demos for "Robert Feverly" were shelved. [1] Also, in Strong Bad E-Mail #142, titled "Secret Identity" pokes fun at this by saying "Secret identities aren't just for superheroes and Garth Brooks anymore." [2] The subject of that particular episode of the Homestarruner.com staple was some of Strong Bad's own alter egos.
Despite the failure of the Chris Gaines project, Brooks gained his first - and only - US Top 40 pop single in "Lost in You", the first single from the album.
Fictional Biography
Christian Gene Gaines was born August 10, 1967 in Brisbane, Australia to an Olympic swimmer and her coach. He dropped out of high school to form a band called Crush, which released their sole hit, "My Love Tells Me So". After the lead singer died in a plane crash, Gaines went dormant for several years before releasing his first solo album, Straight Jacket, which remained in the Billboard 200 chart for 82 weeks and won four Grammys. Gaines then was involved in a serious car accident in 1992 and required numerous plastic surgeries. He remained reclusive until the release of his last studio album Triangle in 1996.
Fictional Timeline
- 1967 - Chris Gaines born in Brisbane, Australia to Australian Olympic swimmer Carolyn Johnns-Gaines and her husband/coach Gene Gaines.
- 1977 - Moved to Los Angeles at the age of 10.
- 1984 - Decides to quit school his senior year at Morningside High to pursue his music professionally.
- 1985 - Joins his best friends Tommy Levitz and Marc Obed in the band CRUSH, signing with Capitol Records later that year.
- 1986 - Crush releases self-titled debut album. The second single, "My Love Tells Me So," is a bouncy, happy, Beatles-like smash and one of the year's most successful songs. But the band's success is short-lived when lead singer Tommy Levitz dies in a plane crash later that year.
- 1987 - Joe Smith of Capitol Records and Chris discuss possibility of a solo career. During the two years of quiet that follows Levitz's death, Chris finishes his GED.
- 1989 - Debuts his solo album, Straight Jacket. Both the public and the music industry respond favorably; the album spends an extraordinary 224 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, 82 weeks on the Billboard Top 40, and wins the Grammy Award for Album of the Year; indeed, Gaines sweeps the Grammys, defeating Bonnie Raitt in three other categories and sparking an over-played "rivalry" mainly cooked up by music biz publicists. Features the hits "Maybe" (a lovely flute and piano ballad co-written and produced by Paul McCartney), "White Flag" (from Chris' "'80s hair band phase"), and "Digging for Gold" (a swampy, Kenny Loggins-influenced song). Still Chris' biggest-selling album to date.
- 1990 - Tragedy strikes again when Chris' father dies in the fall of 1990 after his long battle with cancer. To make matters worse, Haywood, Mississippi town councilwoman Sandy Thompson proclaims Chris "anti-American" based on the vaguely anti-capitalistic lyrics to "Digging for Gold" and starts an "Anti-Gaines" movement that lasts less than a week.
- 1991 - Releases his second solo album, Fornucopia. A very dark and angry album, it debuts at #1 and spends a combined 18 weeks on the top of the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart. Includes a soulful remake of the 1972 Ramsey Sellers classic, "It Don't Matter to the Sun" (sounding sort of like a country song) and the instant hit "Main Street," co-authored by master of folk Bob Dylan, who recycles in careful measure from his "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
- 1992 - Involved in a violent single-car crash that nearly ends his life in winter. Spends six weeks in the hospital and over two years undergoing extensive plastic surgery on his face, shoulder and hands. Will not allow himself to be seen or photographed again until 1996. The first plastic surgeries reportedly leave his face distinctly darker than usual.
- 1994 - Releases his third solo album, Apostle, in the winter. Without any artist promotion, still manages to spend a combined 8 weeks atop the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart. Features the singles "Way of the Girl" (cheeseball keyboard and a chicken-scratch guitar to a hip-hop beat) and "Unsigned Letter" (shades of Bryan Adams and the Wallflowers).
- 1996 - Re-emerges into public view for the first time that winter with Triangle. Is dubbed "The New Prince" by "Out" magazine because of his new look and the fact that his music shows a move towards R&B - a distinct change in musical style from his past. "Driftin' Away" (fluffy, soft and sweet, with elements of R&B and country), "That's the Way I Remember It" (a bold step in the R&B direction), and "Snow in July" (gritty funk leaving some calling him the white Stevie Wonder and detractors calling him the black Steely Dan in reference to his plastic surgery), are the featured hits on the album.
- 1999 - Releases his Greatest Hits compilation, containing the songs "Lost In You" (a lightweight ballad about infatuation influenced by Tracy Chapman) and "Right Now" (a cover of The Youngbloods' "Let's Get Together" to a folk-disco beat combined with a spoken word piece), from his forthcoming concept album The Lamb.
See also
- Garth Brooks as Chris Gaines - history of the Chris Gaines project
- Garth Brooks in ... The Life of Chris Gaines - album from the Chris Gaines project
External links
- The Official Chris Gaines Guitar custom made by Fender
- The Chris Gaines Initiative