Country legend Garth Brooks dropped by NASA’ s Mission Control Thursday for a chat with some friends in high places.
The wide-eyed Brooks was like a kid in a candy store before the interview with ISS Astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer.
“This is awesome. This is very, very cool,” Brooks said.
The feeling was mutual for the astronauts – especially Fischer, who happens to be a Garth Brooks super fan.
“I think that you have so many great songs and so many great messages but it’s the heart that you put into every performance and the soul that you put into those songs that make them so impactful,” Fischer told Brooks.
He brought the singer to tears when he told him “The River” has been his personal anthem for the last three decades.
“So thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such an inspiration to so many and making those words count,” Fischer said.
Brooks also had high praise for Whitson, 57, who owns the record for most total days in space by any NASA astronaut.
“Miss Peggy, you’re a rock star. You have a credentials list a mile long. Congratulations!” Brooks said.
Brooks wife, singer Trisha Yearwood, joined him, along with Fischer’s wife and daughter.
As Brooks and Yearwood sang “The River,” Fischer sang along from 249 miles above Earth.