Seeing as romance was out of the picture, Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks settled for friendship, and supported one another in their professional music careers. According to E! News, once Brooks started making a name for himself, he helped Yearwood land a record contract, and chose her as the opening act for his national tour in 1991. The two even sang duets and backup vocals on each other’s albums.
Despite influencing much of her early career, Brooks never credited himself for Yearwood’s rise. ”To tell you the truth, Trish Yearwood pretty well pulled herself up by her own shoes,” he told the Chicago Tribune during a 2001 interview.
When Garth Brooks split from his first wife in 1999, Trisha Yearwood just so happened to be single herself, according to US Weekly. That’s when their friendship blossomed into something more. “[Trisha] was somebody who I always enjoyed being around, and we had a lot more in common than I ever dreamed we did,” Brooks revealed on The Ellen Show. “We started seeing each other after the divorce, [after] we came off tour,” he said. The rest is history!