Garth Brooks vows ‘something big’ for Yankee Stadium concert

Garth Brooks promises an epic show on July 9 at Yankee Stadium, his first New York concert since his record-setting show in Central Park in 1997.

“Thank you for the opportunity to do something big,” he said at a press conference Tuesday morning. “That’s what happens in this city and in this stadium.”

Brooks said he first fell in love with Yankee Stadium after watching Billy Joel’s 1990 concert film “Live at Yankee Stadium.”

“It was fantastic,” said Brooks, who asked Jon Small, director of Joel’s film, to film his upcoming show as well. “He talked about his boyhood. He talked about White Castle. . . . There was great musicianship.”

For Brooks, the current tour is about gratitude, seeing as it is his first following a 16-year hiatus spent raising his three daughters. “I don’t think I was an ass in the ’90s and I don’t think I took things for granted,” he said. “But there’s a word for getting to tour at this age, this late in your career, with the numbers of people showing up and the attitude they’re showing up with: grateful.”

Another reason Brooks is grateful for his New York appearance is to thank fans for embracing his version of “Shameless” during Joel’s “Last Play at Shea” in 2008, when he was still on hiatus and nervous about performing.

“Everyone was very sweet,” he said. “But only in New York would this happen. . . . I appeared in my Mets jersey that I played in. I appeared with my Mets World Series ring [the Mets had invited him to be a nonroster player in spring training in 2000] that I got right between [Mike] Piazza and [Robin] Ventura. And they booed me because the crowd was full of Yankees [fans]. Everyone was laughing.”

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It’s part of why New Yorkers are so special to him. “They are 100 percent,” he said. “They come with their batteries already on.”

Tickets for Brooks’ show are $79.98 including fees and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Ticketmaster.