SASKATOON — Two Saskatchewan kids who were at their first concert on the weekend have one heck of a souvenir to show off.
Curren Wintonyk-Pilot, who is 12, and his nine-year-old brother Jayce were with their parents at a Garth Brooks concert in Saskatoon on Friday night.
The boys decided to send a message to the country singer and held up a sign from the sixth row that said: “My first concert."
Brooks acknowledged the sign during the show and during his encore gave each boy a guitar pick.
But that wasn't all.
Another moment later he handed over the instrument to Curren.
"He looked at his guitar and took off the strap and by that time the whole stadium is going crazy – they’re going bazonkers,” Curren said.
“(Garth Brooks) said, ‘I’ll make a deal with you. If this is your first concert, you have to invite me to your first concert.’”
Brooks is always candid about pointing out his good run was in the 1990s when his songs topped the charts. That was also a long time before Curren and Jayce were born.
“First off, I didn’t know who Garth Brooks was,” said Jayce.
“But then as the days went by, I started getting excited because we listened to Garth’s music in the car with a CD.”
“I started listening to it and, yeah, I thought it was really good music,” added Curren.
The moment was caught on video which shows the young Saskatoon boy in disbelief and holding his hands to his mouth before flashing an excited smile.
The family was swarmed with requests for photos and a chance to touch the guitar following the show.
“One of the security guards ... tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘We actually need to escort you out to your car,’” said mother Janaya.
“One of them followed us out to the parking lot. We had actually taken a shuttle and they stayed ... with us until we were on the bus.”
Garth Brooks played six sold-out shows Thursday through Sunday in Saskatoon.