Colorado woman notices Yukon Jack is performing at a small Denver club. Then she realizes whose secret moniker that is

Big-name musicians love a good disguise every once in a while. A surprise pop-up show under a fake name can grant stars the thrill of playing a small room again. And sometimes, fans can get in on the fun by cracking the code name attached to a secret gig.

A country fan is going viral for unveiling one such mystery before it even happened.

‘So is Garth Brooks playing at The Grizzly Rose secretly on Thursday?'

Content creator Ali (@yourpallyali58) shared her theory about a mystery act booked at a Denver, Colorado venue. Her video has since accumulated more than 38,000 views.

Ali said she came across a TikTok about the venue The Grizzly Rose adding a mystery show.

“Grizzly Rose is adding a show on Thursday, last minute … for someone named Yukon Jack,” Ali said. “And that is not a person. Or a band. Supposedly.”

Ali connected the dots to Garth Brooks, saying “Yukon Jack” is “like a stage name thing” he uses. She also noticed several suspicious details about the show.

“It's first come, first [served], no buying pre-sale tickets, only can pay for it at the door, no re-entry,” Ali said. “They're not saying how much the tickets are. No way. And you can't leave once you're in.”

Ali ended her video by asking her viewers to confirm her theory.

“So is Garth Brooks playing at The Grizzly Rose secretly on Thursday?” she asked.

@yourpallyali58 Is Garth brooks secretly playing at the @The Grizzly Rose on Thursday? #grizzlyrose #garthbrooksconcert #garthbrooks #denver #colorado ♬ original sound – yourpallyali58

Does Garth Brooks actually perform secretly as Yukon Jack?

Ali's suspicion proved correct. Billboard confirmed that the night before he played his main arena shows in Denver, Brooks played a surprise set at The Grizzly Rose under an alias. Local outlet 9News also reported that fans had speculated for days that the mystery listing was really Brooks. 

According to Taste of Country, Yukon Jack is a nod to Brooks' hometown of Yukon, Oklahoma. And as it turns out, he's used the alias before. Brooks' own website says he and his band first used the alias in 1993, when they were headed to “sing the national anthem at Super Bowl XXVII.” They made a pit stop in New Mexico to play a pop-up show as Yukon Jack.

“We hadn't played a bar in a long time at that point,” Brooks said, as quoted on the site. “We wanted to get back to how that felt.”

His website reports that “only 10 or 11 people were there when the band started playing,” but “word of his pop-up performance spread during the 90-minute show.” After signing autographs “until about 2 a.m.,” he and his band went on to the Super Bowl as planned.

Using a fake name for a secret show is something of a country music tradition. Taste of Country also cites other country singers who've used aliases.

“Hank Williams went by Luke the Drifter to show his spiritual side,” Taste of Country writes. “Granger Smith transformed into Earl Dibbles Jr. to unleash his inner redneck. Country Music Hall of Famer Ferlin Husky invented a country comedian named Simon Crum.”

Buzz News has reached out to Ali via TikTok comment, as well as to Brooks via contact form.