{"id":29053,"date":"2025-04-18T02:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T02:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/29053\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T02:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T02:07:11","slug":"garth-brooks-writer-dies-at-90-singer-calls-him-greatest-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/29053\/","title":{"rendered":"Garth Brooks&#8217; writer dies at 90: Singer calls him &#8216;greatest of all time&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-472\/heidi-parker.html\" class=\"author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HEIDI PARKER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  14:39 EDT, 16 April 2025   |  Updated:  09:18 EDT, 17 April 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Country music songwriter Larry Bastian died on Sunday at the age of 90.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The artist is best know for writing some of the top songs for country music icon Garth Brooks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The musicians worked together on the very successful tunes Unanswered Prayers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">They also co-created the knockout hit single Rodeo which was known for it&#8217;s catchy phrases and hooks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;If one looks down the list of music&#8217;s greatest writers of all time, I couldn&#8217;t imagine the list being complete without the name of Larry Bastian,&#8217; Brooks said in 1995.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-1d0f90e163425cad\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97358407-14619513-image-a-85_1744829442775.jpg\" height=\"438\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Country music songwriter Larry Bastian has died at the age of 90\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Country music songwriter Larry Bastian has died at the age of 90<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-5ef6a60bc387ad85\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97358081-14619513-Country_music_songwriter_Larry_Bastian_has_died_at_the_age_of_90-m-73_174482864668.jpeg\" height=\"673\" width=\"634\" alt=\"The artist is best know for writing some of the top songs for country music icon Garth Brooks. Pictured in March\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">The artist is best know for writing some of the top songs for country music icon Garth Brooks. Pictured in March<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Bastian also worked with\u00a0Conway Twitty on Saturday Night Specialm with Sammy Kershaw on Yard Sale and with Craig Morgan on Look at Us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Other singers he coached are Janie Fricke, David Frizzell (with Merle Haggard), <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/reba-mcentire\/index.html\" id=\"mol-4d03f1b0-1af1-11f0-900d-c1c2a7eec945\" rel=\"noopener\">Reba McEntire<\/a>, George Jones, Neal McCoy and Rhett Akins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The friendship between Bastian and Brooks began decades ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Brooks at the time was working with songwriter Pat Alger but they just could not nail the approach. The song was about addressing gratitude for God&#8217;s wisdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Bastian had an idea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;He looked at me and said, &#8220;Oh, that&#8217;s simple. This song should be called Unanswered Prayers because some of God&#8217;s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers,&#8221;&#8216; he wrote\u00a0in the liner notes for his 1994 greatest hits compilation, The Hits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Bastian was a biologist before he became a songwriter.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-a4db61fbee50840f\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97358079-14619513-image-a-72_1744828625741.jpg\" height=\"490\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Trisha Yearwood, Garth at the ceremony honoring Trisha Yearwood with a Star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame in Hollywood\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Trisha Yearwood, Garth at the ceremony honoring Trisha Yearwood with a Star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame in Hollywood<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Buck Owens, Dewayne Blackwell and Brooks all encouraged him to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;There was no doubt in my mind that I could write a song,&#8217; he said in an interview with The Paul Leslie Hour in 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I think you have to be that driven to succeed, and then there\u2019s a lot of luck. They have a saying, &#8220;You can\u2019t get out of the way of a hit song,&#8221; and that\u2019s so right.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Garth Brooks&#8217; writer dies at 90: Singer calls him &#8216;greatest of all time&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By HEIDI PARKER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 14:39 EDT, 16 April 2025 | Updated: 09:18 EDT, 17 April 2025&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,92,77,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-29053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tvshowbiz","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114356528497678248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}