On October 26, 2000, at a press conference this morning Garth announced his retirement. He plans to release one more album, and has a single that will be released to radio in November. The single is a remix of the song, "Wild Horses" from his second album, No Fences. He'll be watching how it does so he can understand what kind of music, if any, he will bring to the country format next year.

Garth is now soliciting writers for songs for the new album, for which he expects to get as many as 10,000 potential songs, and hopes to release the album around Mother's Day or Father's Day. Don't look for him to call it his "farewell" or "final" album, since he doesn't like those terms, and "you just never know."

One thing that Garth has made clear is that he will not tour again. Another thing he wanted to set straight was the fact that he and Sandy have NOT decided to divorce. That was misreported in the Billboard article. He said they think they might have to divorce, but have not made the final decision.

Television is not out of the question for Garth, however. He's in talks with the networks to do two or three specials to support the launch of the new album.

Garth is still working on the Chris Gaines movie. He said he just received the final script. If they want a soundtrack album for the movie, he will do it.

As for the Opry, Garth has no plans to stop playing there. While he may not make the required 12 appearances during the year, he will act as an ambassador, telling people how much the Opry means, and why they should play it.

On a last note, Garth made the announcement that Planet Garth will soon become Garth's official website in the near future.