Move over, Cher and Elton - Garth is coming to Las Vegas.

Country music superstar Garth Brooks announced this afternoon that he's officially ending his nearly decade-long retirement to begin a residency in Las Vegas at the Wynn Encore Resort.

"I told him he couldn't afford me. I was wrong," Brooks said during the Las Vegas press conference with Steve Wynn, Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts.

The first show in the series will be Dec. 11, followed by Jan. 1-3 performances. The schedule of one Friday-night show, two Saturday shows and one Sunday show, followed by a week off, will continue for weeks.

Tickets for the one-man show will be $125 each, sold on a first-come, first-serve basis with promises that safeguards will be taken against scalpers; IDs will be checked at the door to make sure they match ticket buyers. Tickets for the first weekends go on sale Oct. 24 at 8 a.m.

The news came at the second of two press conferences Brooks -- country's all-time top-selling artist -- staged in two different states today. At the first was at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville this morning, where he announced to reporters that he was ending his retirement. He then flew with them to Las Vegas to have give more details.

At this morning's event, Brooks said that ending his retirement would enable him "to just go do whatever I want, and not have to worry about who I'm disappointing or what rules I'm sticking to."

But fans hoping for a tour or a new album from Brooks will have to wait awhile.

"What people are going to expect from us is 110 miles an hour tomorrow, and the truth is, if we ever do tour again, if we ever do make new music again, it's still going to be another five years," he said, adding that his youngest daughter, Allie Colleen, is 13.

"To record an album, I know, living (in Nashville), it took us six months to record an album," said Brooks, who lives in Oklahoma. "I can't imagine what it would take not living here and coming back and forth...As far as a tour, you know me, man. If I can't eat it, sleep it, breathe it, then it ain't me. So I don't see that happening."

Brooks -- the No. 1-selling solo artist in U.S. history -- announced his retirement in 2000 and has been largely absent from the contemporary country scene. He has continued to make public appearances, record new songs and occasionally perform in concert - often for charitable causes.

More details are still to come.