Garth Brooks met with more than 20 songwriters before landing on one who would help him write his “signature” hit.
According to American Songwriter, who referenced Brooks’ album liner notes The successesthe country legend called “If Tomorrow Never Comes” his “signature song.”
“‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’ will probably always be my signature song,” Brooks said. “I pitched the idea for this song to a thousand writers, and no one seemed to really understand what I was going for.”
He added: “I passed on this idea [songwriter] Kent Blazyand he wrote the first verse in 15 seconds,” Brooks said. “I could tell he just felt it. Kent is a wonderful man, full of love and energy. And if we never write to each other again, I hope we’ll still be friends first and foremost.
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In an interview with Songwriting Magazine, Blazy shared his experience working with Brooks on the song. He described his friend’s experience as a long road, with many writers passing the song on to him before he finally worked on it.
“He wasn’t Garth Brooks then, but he came in and said, ‘I had this idea, it was run by 25 writers, and nobody liked it.’ I said, ‘Well, thank you,’ and he said, ‘Well, don’t you want to hear it?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, play me what you got.'”
Blazy continued, “So he played me what he had, and I loved the idea. Because that’s what my mom used to tell me: ‘Tell the people you love how you feel about them while they’re still alive.'”
He added that the fundamental problem with “If Tomorrow Never Comes” was that “it kills someone in the first two lines of the song. It’s like killing the star of the movie in the first three minutes. There’s nowhere to go.”
Blazy concluded: “So he said, ‘What would you do?’ And I told him, and we did it. And at the end of the day, we both thought we had a really good song.”
Garth Brooks’ “If Tomorrow Never Comes” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart on December 9, 1989, marking his first No. 1 hit from his debut album, Garth Brooks. His follow-up? A second No. 1, a tearjerker, “The Dance”.
This story was originally published by Parade on December 20, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as your preferred source by clicking here.
