Since Garth Brooks returned to touring after a 16-year absence, he’s set records and racked up a slew of honors, including back-to-back CMA Entertainer of the Year titles. Now Brooks can add induction into the newly minted Live Music Hall of Fame.

Brooks was announced as the Hall of Fame’s inaugural recipient on Thursday at the Pollstar Live! conference in Los Angeles. “It’s a total shock and quite an honor,” he told the crowd in attendance. “I don’t think an entertainer is anything without the people who allow him to do this.”

Even beyond his record six CMA Entertainer of the Year awards, Brooks is rarified company as a touring artist, and not just in the country world. Last December he and wife Trisha Yearwood wrapped up a blockbuster tour with an unprecedented run of seven sold-out shows at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. But he remains versatile as well, popping up earlier this week to make a surprise appearance at small Nashville honky-tonk Layla’s during the Country Radio Seminar convention and also sharing the stage with Jason Aldean during an Amazon Music-presented showcase.

Brooks, who turned 56 on Wednesday, has two U.S. festival appearances on tap in the coming months. He’ll perform a pair of shows, one this month and one in March, at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, and headline Stagecoach Music Festival in Indio, California, in April.