A search through some of my favorite artists’ tour schedules online led me to Garth Brooks’… A search through some of my favorite artists’ tour schedules online led me to Garth Brooks’ website.

I figured it was worth a shot. Yeah, I know he’s retired, but so are the Spice Girls and they’re touring. To my surprise, a list popped up with nine dates.

My excitement was quickly followed by disappointment. Not only were there no concerts in Pennsylvania, but the shows were all scheduled to take place in the same location: Kansas City.

Perhaps you remember all the drama last year with the Penguins’ new arena. For a while, it looked like the Penguins were about to move to Kansas City, and Pittsburgh fans created a little chant to show their disgust: It simply consisted of chanting the four letters in the F-word, but switching the last two letters from C-K to K-C.

Now bitter Garth Brooks fans have a new slogan.

After I decided that Kansas City was my least favorite next to Cleveland, Cincinnati and Baltimore, I began pondering the current career of Garth Brooks.

All the latest headlines about him have been extremely confusing. Country’s first big superstar looks like he’s back from retirement, but he still claims that he won’t be back until 2015 – the year his youngest child turns 18.

Brooks has a new greatest hits collection, The Ultimate Hits, which features all of the same songs that were in his four other greatest hits collections, plus a couple new tracks. Apparently, people will still pay $15 for Garth Brooks even if there are only three new songs on the album.

This new album is most likely in response to the criticism he got from his previous greatest hits collections. He sold the other box sets exclusively through Wal-Mart, which upset quite a few fans and industry professionals.

First, when only sold through one merchant, the album sales won’t be counted toward the Nielsen SoundScan charts. Second, some fans don’t live near a Wal-Mart, don’t want to shop online or flat out refuse to shop at Wal-Mart because of its heavy reliance on Chinese imports.

Now, fans who shop at any store across the world can purchase the album.

Including the two Wal-Mart releases, Garth Brooks has had four greatest hits albums. The new one features the same songs as all the rest, including “The Dance,” “The Thunder Rolls,” “Two Pina Coladas” and “Ain’t Goin’ Down (Til the Sun Comes Up).”

To top things off, there are three different versions of this new album. Yes, he wants us to buy the same songs, which we already bought four times, three more times.

There’s the regular version of Ultimate, and then there’s a limited edition – with no marked difference from the original. There is, however, a very noticeable difference in the third version – it’s pink. That’s right, Brooks wants country music fans to go out and buy a pink box. All the proceeds benefit breast cancer research, though, so it is for a good cause.

One of the three new songs on the album, “More Than a Memory,” made country music history in September. The album’s first official single became the first song to ever debut at the No. 1 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.

That just proves how powerful Garth Brooks still is in the realm of country music. It also showed that he’s still in high demand, despite the limited supply.

Brooks was scheduled to perform in Kansas City’s brand new Sprint Center on Nov. 14. The arena holds about 18,000 people, and when tickets went on sale all 18,000 seats sold out in just a few minutes. Another date was immediately added, and again, it sold out quickly.

This process continued until nine shows in Kansas City were sold out in less than two hours. The shows took place over the first few weeks in November. Brooks told reporters that he would have added even more shows, but prior obligations prevented him from doing so.

I’m sure everyone in Kansas and the surrounding areas are thrilled, but I’m pretty ticked. If you are going to play nine shows, why not go on tour? Spread the shows out across the country.

Brooks is country’s first superstar. Even people who claim to hate country music enjoy Garth Brooks. Everyone enjoys a drunken sing-a-long to “Friends in Low Places,” which is also one of the most sung karaoke songs in history. He announced his retirement in 2000. He said he’d be back in 2015, but has he really left?

Brooks is worse than Michael Jordan when it comes to retirement. He has released four albums since he retired, which yielded 12 singles on the radio. Most successful artists don’t have four albums and 12 singles in their entire careers, and he achieved this while retired.

I think I speak for everybody when I say this: Garth, just come out of “retirement” already! If you’re going to spend time in a studio recording three songs, why not record a couple more and make a new album?

Go on a real tour over the summer. Your children can handle it. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have done this with their family for the past two summers.

I bet if you do all of this, you will win Entertainer of the Year, hands down. Kenny Chesney wouldn’t hold a candle to you, even if he does sell out stadiums every summer. You’re Garth Brooks. Chesney even references you in one of his songs (“Big Star”).

The title of “King of Country Music” may not belong to Garth Brooks, but he’s definitely the biggest star. And that star is still shining brightly. It may fade if he waits eight more years to come out of retirement.