Meet Garth Brooks' Youngest Daughter — Rising Country Music Star Allie Colleen
She doesn't want to trade on her family name.
youtube Who is Allie Brooks? She's an up and coming figure in country music. Her debut single dropped last summer and she followed it up with her second single in September 2019.
She's accustomed to playing in bars and at open-air events, but she's hoping to start headlining more gigs as she gets more well-known.
She could be going much faster in her career if the wanted to, however. All she would need to do is ask her dad, Garth Brooks, for some help.
Brooks, whose fans got to know more about him after his two-part documentary, Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On, aired on A&E last December, actually has three daughters. But the spotlight has been put on Colleen since she seems to be following in her father's musical footsteps.
Colleen is doing it her own way and, so far, it's working well for her. She's getting good reviews on her first couple of songs, and she's got plans to keep writing and recording. She just wants to do it on her own terms.
Who is Allie Brooks AKA Allie Colleen?
Despite her famous father, she didn't have a typical celebrity upbringing.
Colleen is Brooks' youngest daughter. Now 23 years old, she says that growing up with a famous dad wasn't exactly as chaotic as some celebrity kid's experience.
Brooks famously retired from recording and performing for years, in order to focus on his family. That was right around the time he divorced Colleen's mom, Sandy.
The two parents were committed to co-parenting and they both wanted to be sure the kids could see them every day. They worked out a system where the girls switched parents at 6pm every day.
Colleen remembers both of her parents being there for homework and school events. She doesn't have a memory of living a celebrity lifestyle at all, even after stepmom Tricia Yearwood came into the picture and her dad started performing again.
She's making a name for herself, without the help of her father's famous name.
On her website, Colleen makes a point of centering on her music, not on her parents. In her bio, she talks about who she is, but not who her dad is.
"Americana Folk Country Artist from Owasso, Oklahoma, currently residing Nashville, TN," her website reads. "Allie is a graduate of Belmont University with a degree in Songwriting and Music Business. She has been performing since she was 14 years of age and now since graduating in 2018 she has been on the road sharing her talent with audiences of all different kinds."
Brooks wanted her to finish college before going into music.
Her degree from Belmont was part of a deal she made with her dad. She always wanted to pursue music professionally, but he made her promise to finish college before signing a record contract.
As it is, she has the degree, but she's still an independent artist. She says she has had an offer from a label, but didn't feel like it was the right time to sign on with a record company.
She dropped her famous last name.
She doesn't use her dad's last name, in part so she can make it on her own terms. But the name Colleen also has special family significance that she likes to highlight.
"My grandma was Colleen Carroll. She was a singer,” Colleen explained in a 2019 interview. “God knows if this story is true, but I always thought it was the coolest thing. My grandpa told us about the day he met our grandma. He was just in from the military. He went to a bar, and he just heard her sing. He was like, ‘I’m going to marry her.’"
Her affection for her grandmother extended into her first single: she released "Work in Progress" on her grandmother's birthday.
It's not just a 'family business' to her.
Music isn't just the family business for Colleen, she also feels like it's her calling.
“I am doing this because quite honestly, because even though I wouldn’t choose a different career, I don’t feel like I have a choice to do anything other than music," she said in a 2018 interview. “I’m not good at anything else. I’m not athletic. There’s just something about music. As a girl who struggles with confidence, it’s the only thing I know I’m good at.’’
She's still working on finding her own sound.
Colleen is still working toward figuring out what her signature sound is. She has said that it's tempting to go full country, but she doesn't think her voice is exactly a country sound.
“I feel like I have a pretty weird pop vocal, which makes it a little hard to find my place in the country music genre," she said. “It’s hard to figure out what I sound like. Every producer wants to make me as country as possible because of my dad."
She calls her style Americana Folk Country which leaves her a lot of flexibility to experiment with her sound.
She's married.
Colleen tied the knot with Jonathan Roberts in October 2018. They got married on her father's estate. Brooks even built the chapel that they got married in.
Roberts is an elementary school teacher.
She's on a roll with her music career.
She dropped her first single last summer, a ballad called "Work In Progress." She did the bulk of the writing on it and felt good about it from the moment she walked into the studio.
“When I walked in the studio that day with Marcus and Greg, Marcus already had the entire song structure minus the chorus when we all sat down. For the first time, I wasn’t worried about how commercial the song was or what everyone else was going to think about the song. I was just honest,” shared Colleen. “I think that is why we are so proud and excited to let you all in on who we are, as a work in progress.”
She followed that up with her second single in September 2019 called "Along the Way." More recently, she released another single titled “Ain’t The Only Hell (My Momma Raised).” The song is dedicated to mothers.
Colleen said about the song, “This song goes out to all the moms, to all the women who put their hell-raising lives on hold to raise their babies. My mom(s) are my greatest role models. I am who I am because of who they are.”
Garth Brooks' documentary is streaming on Netflix now.
Although the film was originally released in December 2019 on A&E, it's now available to stream on Netflix for all the fans who missed it. The documentary is basically a biography on Brooks, covering his life and illustrious career in country music.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted in November 2019 and was updated with the latest information.