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\n\tThe Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced this week it will present Garth Brooks with the artist of a lifetime award at the upcoming RIAA Honors event in Washington, D.C. The country icon is being recognized for his unprecedented reach and success, having had 10 diamond-certified records. \t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\tHere\u2019s What Garth Brooks Thought of Morgan Evans\u2019 Cover of \u2018Ain\u2019t Going Down (\u2018Til the Sun Comes\u00a0Up)\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n \n\tPrior RIAA Honors events delivered awards to the likes of Miranda Lambert, one of the first female country artists to break through with huge commercial success;\u00a0Grandmaster Flash\u00a0and\u00a0MC Lyte, for their contributions to furthering the hip-hop genre; Gloria Estefan, for her role in taking Latin music mainstream; multiplatinum artist Lauren Daigle; and several policymakers, including House Democratic Caucus Chair\u00a0Hakeem Jeffries, and U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Chris Coons, among many others. \t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\tAhead of Billboard Icon Award, Garth Brooks Reflects on His Career, Why He\u2019d Never Run for President & The Return of Chris\u00a0Gaines\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAs a member of the RIAA board, Bunt has frequently met with representatives to explain the impact legislation can have on music, culture and human artistry, says RIAA COO Michelle Ballantyne<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe want policymakers to know how the work gets done to bring music to everyone \u2014\u00a0that it\u2019s hard,\u201d Ballantyne says. \u201cWhat really moves the needle is when people are in the trenches willing to explain. He\u2019s willing to take the time to make those discussions with us.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe RIAA\u2019s policymakers of the year award will be delivered to Representatives Dean, a Democrat, and Moran, a Republican. Earlier this year, the pair introduced the Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act, a bipartisan bill that aims to give musicians, artists and writers new ways to determine if their copyrights were used in the training of generative AI models by granting them access to training records upon legal request. [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/garth-brooks-disney-music-head-2026-riaa-honors\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/P1012MVI.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced this week it will present Garth Brooks with the artist of a lifetime award at the upcoming RIAA Honors event in Washington, D.C. The country icon is being recognized for his unprecedented reach and success, having had 10 diamond-certified records.\u00a0The event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-1962564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1962564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1962564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1962564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1962564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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The event \u2014 which recognizes artists, industry executives and policymakers who have shaped American music and culture \u2014 will also honor Disney Music Group president Ken Bunt<\/strong> (label exec of the year) and US. Representatives Nathaniel Moran of Texas and Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania.
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\u201cThe RIAA sits at the intersection of politics, art and culture, and we wanted to create an event that brought together the trailblazing artists, policymakers and executives who have done something extraordinary,\u201d RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier<\/strong> tells Billboard<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Garth](\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/P1144FR7-e1774995955871.jpg?crop=0px%2C0px%2C1800px%2C1116px&resize=237%2C147\")
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Brooks has been breaking sales and concert attendance records since his 1989 breakout hit \u201cMuch Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),\u201d released when he was 27. The RIAA calls Brooks the No. 1-selling album artist in U.S. history, with more than 200 million certified album sales, and the only artist to ever have 10 albums sell more than 10 million each, achieving diamond status 10 times.
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Brooks\u2019 music is so widely consumed, Glazier says, that the RIAA does not have enough room at its Washington, D.C. headquarters to hang all of his diamond awards.
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\u201cAt the RIAA headquarters, we have a wall that has every diamond album ever certified, but Garth has 10,\u201d Glazier says. \u201cThe wall won\u2019t fit Garth.\u201d
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Asked to comment on the honor, Brooks echoed James Taylor\u2019s comment that music is a deeply personal craft not motivated by record sales or Billboard<\/em> hits.
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\u201cIt\u2019s not about numbers, it is about the music,\u201d Brooks says through a spokesperson. \u201cThis milestone goes directly to country radio. It introduced me to the world\u2019s biggest, best, and most loyal audience: the country music audience.\u201d
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The RIAA will deliver its label executive of the year award to Bunt for his role in elevating Disney Music to become a critical part of Disney\u2019s storytelling. Bunt helped launch the careers of\u00a0Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Hilary Duff, Demi Lovato, the Jonas Brothers, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus, thereby expanding the genres of music children were introduced to through Disney content.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Garth](\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Garth-Brooks-feb-8-2019-a-billboard-1548-1602180248.jpg?w=237&h=147&crop=1\")
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\u201cEvery year we honor a Republican and a Democrat because it\u2019s important to show that both sides are participating in helping to move things along legislatively in a way that protects American music and creativity,\u201d says Ballantyne. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a corny saying. Music actually brings people together.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Billboard](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2HpFicp.png\")
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