Trisha Yearwood Reveals How She Felt Watching Garth Brooks’ Emotional CMA Performance

Trisha Yearwood was overcome with emotion after her husband Garth Brooks performed his brand-new song “Stronger Than Me” at the 2018 CMA Awards in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday, November 14.

At the event, Brooks debuted the new tune, which he dedicated to his wife of almost 13 years.

Both Brooks and Yearwood were brought to tears as the country superstar sang in front of a packed house and the viewing audience about all the ways in which his wife was stronger than him.

Yearwood told Entertainment Tonight that she had not heard the song before its debut at the awards show.

“I have not heard this thing!” she exclaimed. “I swear, pinkie swear.”

“I’m going to kiss your face. That was so beautiful,” Yearwood said, to her husband after the performance backstage in front of ET‘s cameras.

“Girls know this when you’re about to cry and it wells up and then it kind of subsides a little and you’re like, ‘OK,’ and then it wells up again,” she dished. “It didn’t fall and go all the way down my chin and down to my shirt until the end, but it was beautiful!”

The next time Yearwood wanted to hear the song was in the privacy of the couple’s home, where she could “cry ugly” to her heart’s content.

Yearwood explained to Entertainment Tonight that the song touched on several things the couple has discussed in their married life, including their relationship today and what the future holds as they grow old together.

The country singer revealed she was particularly moved by the last line of the song, which states, “I pray God takes me first ’cause you’re stronger than me.”

“This is a conversation we have in our lives, so yeah, it’s like, ‘I can’t, I hope I go first,’ and he’s like, ‘No, I have to go first. I can’t. I won’t be able to,'” she said of the intimate reveal to Entertainment Tonight.

Brooks regularly gushes about his wife, most recently explaining to Fox News in September how the pair makes their marriage a priority despite their busy careers.

The country superstars find pleasure spending time as a couple giving back to others less fortunate. The twosome has worked with Habitat for Humanity for the past 10 years to help build homes for those in need. Brooks and Yearwood first became involved with the organization in 2007 after a fan wrote Brooks for his assistance in helping to build homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.