Channeling Garth: Pearl's Garth Brooks kicked off the launch of SiriusXM's "The Garth Channel" (55) last night (9/8) with his first-ever concert at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, a private show for subscribers that was also broadcast live on the new channel. He opened the show with snippets of his favorite songs, including Cal Smith's "Country Bumpkin," George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," George Strait's "Amarillo By Morning" and Keith Whitley's "Don't Close Your Eyes." And then it was time for his own signature tunes, starting with "Friends In Low Places" and including "The Dance," "The Thunder Rolls," "The River," "Callin' Baton Rouge" and "Unanswered Prayers." Wife Trisha Yearwood – whom Brooks referred to as "The Queen" – joined him onstage for "In Another's Eyes," "Walkaway Joe" and a new duet, "Whiskey To Wine," which he says will be on a new album this fall. Watch a behind-the-scenes clip of the day here.

At yesterday's pre-show press conference, Brooks revealed what he'll program on his channel. "My input is, 'Do I like it? Yeah. It goes on the channel,'" he said. "What format? Doesn't matter. So you're going to hear Ray Charles, Lady Gaga, to George Strait, to Bruno Mars, with some Garth thrown in there. ... Who's the greatest voice that's ever graced country music? George Jones. Who's the greatest country artist that ever lived? Merle Haggard. This is just my opinion. But since [my] name's on the channel, I get to pick that stuff. Of course, the King's [George Strait] going to be on there all the time. I'm a huge Strait fan. And there will be a female named Trisha Yearwood on there, quite a lot. She's also going to be one of the deejays who'll have a show every week. That woman's got great taste in music, so you'll probably hear a lot of her heroes – Dolly, Emmylou, Loretta, Linda Ronstadt."

When asked if he would debut his own music on the channel, Brooks said, "It's going to be a delicate balance between The Garth Channel and Country music radio, terrestrial radio. Those are the guys that have brought you where you're at, long before Sirius was here, long before streaming was here. So it's going to be a delicate balance of making sure they understand that you're a brother with them. The people that want to play the music, you give them the way. For those that don't want to play the music, then we've got another place to play it, right here on The Garth Channel." As he continues his three-year world tour, Brooks stressed to the crowd of journalists before heading to the Ryman for soundcheck, "My retiring days are behind me. I want to either drop dead doing this or get thrown out doing it."