Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood Make Habitat for Humanity Build a Family Affair
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood signed house No. 19 when they finished working last week. That's their house, and they take pride in the work they did between interviews and photo ops.
Once again the couple are taking active roles in the Habitat for Humanity Carter Work Project, but this year they're not the only "Brooks" or "Yearwood" swinging a hammer. Yearwood's sister, Beth, was a part of the build on Nashville's north side of downtown. For the first time, two of Brooks' three daughters were out there, too. They hadn't been old enough previously, but one summer not long ago the couple tasked the girls with a project on the family property where they had to bend rebar, move concrete and build a bridge.
“They come out here now and they just pick up hammers and go to work,” Brooks tells Taste of Country with fatherly pride.
That the women of the house are hands-on with home improvements should surprise no one. Brooks and Yearwood have been a part of President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn's work project for more than a decade, and it's always been Yearwood wearing a larger tool belt than her husband. He'll joke that he prefers the demolition more than the construction, but there are a few photos of him up on a roof swinging a hammer this week in Nashville. It's almost as if he gravitated to the rafters like he used to do on tour in the '90s.
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“My thing is whatever job nobody wants,” Brooks says, explaining how he models his road crew — men and women who daily do jobs no one else wants.
"I think especially for girls and for women it’s a real confidence builder," Yearwood says. "It’s really cool to see girls and women on this worksite do something they didn’t know they could do. You just see their faces change."
Twenty-one new homeowners will accept keys to houses they helped build and have to keep paying for once the Nashville build wraps. The superstars got to know each new homeowner on a personal level — heck, they're all practically neighbors, as Brooks celebrates a short 12-minute commute from home to construction site.
“Our homeowner has three kids, two boys and a girl," Yearwood reveals. "She’s going into nursing school and this will be the first time she’s ever had a backyard."
"Her neighbor is an older woman who battled addiction, has been clean for six years and has grown kids and works at Thistle Farms and got her life together and now is going to have her first home," she adds, hoping it will be a natural mentorship relationship.
They'll likely never see the famous signatures on their house. It's a longstanding tradition that those who work on a the project sign it somewhere, but typically that's on a rafter or wall joist. The spirt of the build and those who worked on the homes will permeate for years to come, however.
“The truth is if you just let it go and you just love, you’re gonna find your niche over there," Brooks says, gesturing at the houses to his left.
And then the couple got back to work — real work.
See Pics of Garth and Trisha Working on Their 2019 Habitat for Humanity Build: