Country legend Garth Brooks is the subject of a new two-part documentary on A&E titled The Road I’m On, and it gives fans a completely unfiltered look at his life and career while also talking to everyone in his family – including his ex-wife, Sandy Mahl. But, after hearing what she had to say, Brooks said Mahl surprised him before calling her “phenomenal.”

Brooks spoke to Us Weekly at a New York City event promoting the documentary, and he said the mother of his girls – Taylor, 27, August, 25, and Allie, 23 – finally got the opportunity to tell her side of the story.

Garth Brooks Talks Coparenting With Trisha Yearwood, Sandy Mahl

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“What really surprised me was Sandy, the girls’ mom. She was phenomenal,” said Brooks. “[I was] gone so much on the road [during our marriage], there were things I guess she was [trying to tell] me that I didn’t hear until this biography. It’s rare you get to hear the other side. I just saw her and I think I hugged her harder than I ever have now that I know things that either I didn’t hear or that she didn’t say until now.”

The 57-year-old country music superstar was married to Mahl from 1986 to 2005, and then he later married his current wife Trisha Yearwood in 2011. However, Brooks admits that when he first met Yearwood just “13 months” after marrying Mahl, he felt like he had just met his wife.

Brooks explained that after meeting Yearwood – who was a much bigger country music star than Brooks at the time – it was weird to have the feeling that he met his wife when he was already married to Mahl, who he wed in a church in front of their families.

The Friends In Low Places singer said that if he would have married Yearwood back then, either his career wouldn’t have been what it was in the 90s, or their marriage wouldn’t have lasted. So, he has to believe that things happen when they happen, and he feels very lucky right now to be where he is.

Brooks said that even if he has regrets, he wouldn’t change anything in fear of changing where he is right now.

When Brooks left the music industry after his massive success in the 90s, he says he left Nashville, got divorced, moved back to Oklahoma, and found himself living with “three strange women” who he didn’t know. Brooks explained that his daughters were 8, 6, and 4 at the time, and he was about to get a “crash course in females.”

However, when his best friend (Yearwood) showed up, she helped him out. But since she didn’t have kids, it was like the “blind leading the blind.”

Garth Brooks says he doesn’t wish divorce on anyone, but he is lucky that they were able to work things out. And, even though he loves music to death, there’s “nothing like loving your babies.”

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Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On airs in two parts on Monday, December 2nd and Tuesday, December 3rd on A&E.