Remember when demand for Garth Brooks tickets led to a tragic lawsuit

In the summer of 1992, the exorbitant demand for Garth Brooks tickets led to a tragic legal battle between Dr. Homer D. Hardy Jr. and the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. While the lawsuit did not go in favor of the plaintiff, it was a shocking example of how ticket sales culture can affect an entire population, regardless of who is buying or selling.

The tension and relevance of the story was further heightened by the fact that the litigation originated in Garth Brooks' hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

How high demand for Garth Brooks tickets led to a lawsuit

Before the age of social media and ticket apps, promoters often sold concert tickets by phone. This was the case with a Garth Brooks show in his native Oklahoma, which resulted in thousands of fans flooding the phone lines on a fateful day in July 1992. That same day, Tulsa physician Dr. Homer Hardy Jr.'s wife, Phyllis Joan Love Hardy, suffered a heart attack.

Dr. Hardy tried calling 911 several times, but the lines were overloaded with thousands of fans trying to get tickets to see Garth Brooks. After getting a busy signal for 20 minutes, he called the operator, who then contacted 911. Tragically, Phyllis Hardy died in the hospital that same day, July 18, 1992. A month later, Dr. Hardy sued the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company for $35 million in damages.

In his lawsuit, Hardy claimed that the phone company knew that allowing promoters to sell tickets for the Garth Brooks concert by phone would overload Tulsa's phone system and cause the 911 emergency system to fail. The Oklahoman.

The court tried to depose the country star

Although Garth Brooks was neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the case, he was not exempt from a trial. Dr. Homer Hardy Jr.'s attorney James Weger had subpoenaed the country superstar to testify in the federal case. The attorney explained that he did not subpoena Brooks to court “because he is Garth Brooks. He was subpoenaed because he was in charge of the organization that put on the concert” (via Tulsa World).

Weger ordered Brooks to provide his law firm with documents relating to his involvement with the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, including contracts and correspondence about ticket sales in Tulsa and Dallas. Not surprisingly, Brooks' attorney, J. Warren Jackman, filed a motion to appeal the testimony. A judge's denial of the appeal seemed to be a step in the plaintiff's favor, but ultimately the grieving widow lost her case.

In January 1996, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that Dr. Hardy had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was negligent in causing Phyllis Hardy's death. “Plaintiff's claim that decedent's death was negligent is far too speculative and far-fetched to be sustained here,” court documents said.

Thus, the trial disappeared from country music history, becoming a regrettable relic of early 1990s concert promotion and the way in which celebrity and fandom can have far-reaching effects on the communities in which they live.

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