Here's where it somehow gets more confusing. Not only was Garth Brooks pretending to be Chris Gaines for an album, he was also openly playing Gaines in the movie. Meanwhile, in the 1999 NBC special Garth Brooks... In the Life of Chris Gaines, he stopped pretending Gaines was real, which completely blurred the lines on what exactly fans were supposed to think of the whole thing.

The special stars Garth Brooks as Garth Brooks, talking about what it was like to play Gaines. He talks about how tough it was trying to look like a skinny rock star when he, well, wasn't one, and also remarks how strange it was for Gaines' falsetto to come from his face. Every few minutes, however, the screen throws us "Did You Know?" facts about Chris Gaines, even though the special is making it crystal clear he isn't real.

Interspersed between Brooks talking about his, as he puts it, "fictitious character that just lets it swing," we see clips of Brooks playing his character's songs for a live crowd while acting like Gaines isn't actually a character. In the big reveal at the end, he mentions the major car wreck Gaines was in that forced his facial reconstruction, and then reveals Gaines' face to the crowd. Tongue firmly in cheek, he quips that Gaines looks "a little like Prince" and adds, "I think that's a damn good-looking man right there." Brooks was clearly having a bit of goofy fun here, though the tepid reaction to the music suggested few fans shared his enthusiasm.

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