About Brooks & Dunn
Brooks & Dunn is an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, both of whom are vocalists and songwriters. The duo was founded in 1990 through the suggestion of songwriter and record producer Tim DuBois. Before their formation, both members were solo recording artists, having charted two solo singles apiece in the 1980s. Brooks also released an album for Capitol Records in 1989 and wrote hit singles for other artists.
The duo signed to Arista Nashville after their foundation. They have recorded eleven studio albums, one Christmas album, and five compilation albums for the label. They also have released 50 singles, of which 20 went to number one on the Hot Country Songs charts and 19 more reached top 10. Two of these number-one songs, "My Maria" and "Ain't Nothing 'bout You", were the top country songs of 1996 and 2001, respectively, according to the Billboard Year-End charts. The latter is also the duo's longest-lasting number-one single on that chart at six weeks. Several of their songs have also reached the Billboard Hot 100, with the number-25 peaks of "Ain't Nothing 'bout You" and "Red Dirt Road" being their highest there. Brooks and Dunn also won the Country Music Association Vocal Duo of the Year award every year between 1992 and 2006, except for 2000. Two of their songs won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal: "Hard Workin' Man" in 1994 and "My Maria" in 1996. All but two of the duo's studio albums are certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America; their highest-certified is their 1991 debut album, Brand New Man, which is certified sextuple-platinum for shipments of six million copies.
The duo's material is known for containing influences of honky-tonk, mainstream country, and rock, as well as the contrast between their singing voices and on-stage personalities, although some of their music has also been criticized as formulaic. Their 1992 single "Boot Scootin' Boogie" helped repopularize line dancing in the United States, and 2001's "Only in America" was used by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama in their respective presidential campaigns. Brooks and Dunn have collaborated with several artists, including Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Mac Powell, Billy Gibbons, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Luke Combs.
After announcing their retirement in August 2009, they performed their final concert on September 2, 2010, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Both Brooks and Dunn have continued to record for Arista Nashville as solo artists. Dunn released a self-titled album in 2011, which included the top-10 country hit "Bleed Red", while Brooks released New to This Town in September 2012. The duo reunited in 2015 for a series of concerts with Reba McEntire in Las Vegas. In 2019, the duo was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Leon Eric "Kix" Brooks III was born on May 12, 1955, in Shreveport, Louisiana, and before moving to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1976, he played at various venues in Maine. He was also a neighbor of country singer Johnny Horton. Brooks worked as a songwriter in the 1980s, co-writing the number-one singles "I'm Only in It for the Love" by John Conlee, "Modern Day Romance" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and "Who's Lonely Now" by Highway 101, plus The Oak Ridge Boys' Top 20 hit "You Made a Rock of a Rolling Stone", Nicolette Larson's "Let Me Be the First", and Keith Palmer's "Don't Throw Me in the Briarpatch". Brooks also released several singles through the independent Avion label, charting at No. 73 on Hot Country Songs in 1983 with "Baby, When Your Heart Breaks Down". In 1989, he released a self-titled studio album through Capitol Records. This album included "Baby, When Your Heart Breaks Down" and "Sacred Ground", which McBride & the Ride covered and took to No. 2 on the country charts in 1992. Brooks and Pam Tillis co-wrote and sang on "Tomorrow's World", a multi-artist single released on Warner Bros. Records in 1990 in honor of Earth Day. Brooks also co-produced and co-wrote "Backbone Job", a Keith Whitley outtake that appeared on his 1991 compilation album, Kentucky Bluebird.
Ronnie Gene Dunn was born on June 1, 1953, in Coleman, Texas. He played bass guitar in local bands during high school, and he briefly studied theology at Hardin-Simmons University with the intention of becoming a Baptist preacher. Dunn was "kicked out" of the school because he played in bars. Between 1983 and 1984, he recorded for the Churchill label, taking both "It's Written All Over Your Face" and "She Put the Sad in All His Songs" to number 59 on the country charts. In 1989, session drummer Jamie Oldaker entered Dunn in a talent contest sponsored by Marlboro, which he won. The grand prize in the competition included a recording session in Nashville, Tennessee. The producer of that session, Scott Hendricks, recommended Dunn's recordings to Tim DuBois, then an executive of Arista Nashville. DuBois paired Brooks and Dunn because he thought that they would work well together as songwriters, and after the two recorded a demo, he suggested that they form a duo. During this timespan, Dunn also wrote "Boot Scootin' Boogie", which Asleep at the Wheel recorded on their 1990 album, Keepin' Me Up Nights.
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