Brooks & Dunn Get Honest About Their Struggles To Get Along Over The Years: “We Tried To Blow It Real Hard”

One of the greatest country duos of all-time.

Of course, legendary country duo Brooks & Dunn  burst onto the scene with their hit debut song “Brand New Man” topped the charts in 1991, after they had been working together writing songs because songwriter and industry executive Tim DuBois wanted them to work as a duo.

Both Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks moved to Nashville as solo artists and were pursuing solo careers, but were put together in an arranged musical marriage of sorts, and they famously split in August of 2009 after 20 years as a duo, but it was only for several years, as they reunited in 2015 for a Las Vegas residency with Reba McEntire called “Reba, Brooks & Dunn: Together in Vegas.”

From there, they started working together and performing together again, and eventually, they put out their amazing Reboot album in 2019 that featured collaborations with contemporary country artists, and because of how successful it was, they launched a tour in 2021. They put out a new Reboot album with a different group of artists in 2024. They’re back performing and being nominated for major country awards, but their relationship hasn’t always been perfect…

Fans have long speculated about how much Kix and Ronnie really “like” each other, but I think a lot of that stems from the fact that they’ve just been doing together for so long that they have had ups and downs, like with any long term friendship or relationship.

During a recent interview, they opened up about that and Ronnie said they “do like each other” and had magic right away when they first started writing together in 1990:

“We do like one another… just over time. I mean, we were thrown together. You know, 1990, and just told to go write songs, we didn’t know what we were doing or what project. It was in in this room, or a different form of this room, we did it over a weekend and took a few the songs back. ‘Brand New Man’ and ‘Next Broken Heart’ back to Tim Dubois. He was starting Arista records with Clive Davis at the time.”

They obviously had no idea that it would become what it did:

“No, not a clue. Worst case scenario, we were thinking one thing would lead to another and we’d go out and find other jobs and get record deals or whatever. But it took off, like, immediately.”

Kix explained that there’s been a lot of “ebb and flow” to it all over the span of 30 years, and when they started having #1’s with radio hits as a duo, it was a bit confusing considering they had been doing the same things solo and it had never worked like that:

“I mean 35 years, a lot of ebb and flow, for sure. We’ve both been doing this a long time without a whole lot to show for it, honestly. And all of a sudden #1, #1, #1. You’re like, ‘What in the hell?’ It’s just weird when you beat up bars and you work so hard and you feel like you’re every bit as good then a you’ now but what just happened?”

Ronnie thinks a lot of it probably had to do with timing, but they really don’t know why exactly it worked, because as Kix explained, they had “absolutely nothing in common.” They came from totally different circumstances, and he likened their ultimate break up to being like a NASCAR race and a wreck waiting to happen:

“I think we had some pretty good songs, but I think we had absolutely nothing in common. We had nothing in common onstage. We came from totally different backgrounds as far as performing went, and I think it was kind of a NASCAR race.

It’s like, there’s a wreck on the way. So let’s watch this for a while, and see how hard they hit the wall. And we did plenty of times, but I think I think there was some nervous energy between the two of us. Kinda always has been.”

Ronnie said they didn’t even know who would be the lead singer at first, which made things awkward:

“You start at that level, you don’t even know who’s gonna be the lead singer, or if there is gonna be a lead singer. It was awkward. I don’t know that we ever had that discussion.”

Kix believes Ronnie was the right man for the job because he’s such an incredible singer, and he could admit that now, but he implied that it was really hard for him at first. They credit Reba having them in Vegas for getting that spark back, and the resurgence they’ve had since then is nothing short of impressive. Their songs go viral on TikTok now quite frequently, and it’s really cool to see them helping bring that awesome 90’s sound to the next generation:

“Ronnie was singing hits right off the bat, even though we wrote ‘Next Broken Heart’ and ‘Brand New Man,’ he grabbed it. I couldn’t have sung either one of those songs near that well. It’s easy for me to look back on it, I think. We’re both trying so hard with our egos involved, not knowing how it’s gonna go, you know. But it shook out to me, realizing, really, what a great singer he is.

And I don’t have any trouble saying that now after 35 years. We’ve been through freaking miles of up and down, and mud, and running through the freaking daisies out there. It’s just, it’s crazy to look back on, even going through 2010 when we quit and meant it. But it didn’t take but a couple of years and a couple of gigs showed up and we never really lost that, whatever it is, that happens onstage. Especially when Reba got involved, you know, we’d done a couple of big tours with her.

And she drug us into Vegas and we’re doing a 2 1/half hour show just shooting the bull and singing the songs. We both had a pretty good handful of hits and, like, damn this is fun. And it just reminded us, this is great. And to put this thing together with Reba, damn, we got a hillbilly band back there, or a honky-tonk band that’s the truth. Let’s go bang that again cause that really was fun you know. Just get over our BS.”

Ronnie stated simply:

“We tried to blow it real hard.”

Thankfully, it seems like it was just meant to be that they’d eventually work and sing together again, and they’re back on the road playing for fans doing it just like they always did. Not many artists at that point int heir career can even dream about being back at the forefront of the conversation for their own genre like Brooks & Dunn are now, but I appreciate their honesty about how it hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows.

The fact that they wrote bangers like “Brand New Man” and “Next Broken Heart” proves that they were destined for country greatness that has thankfully lasted for decades.

“Brand New Man”

The post Brooks & Dunn Get Honest About Their Struggles To Get Along Over The Years: “We Tried To Blow It Real Hard” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.