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BROOKS & DUNN – All Great Things Must Come To An End. . .
By: Preshias Tomes Harris
Once Brooks & Dunn’s (Arista Records/Nashville’s debut) “Brand New Man” hit the airways in 1991, the song, and the subsequent hits, established them in the country music history books as one of the most successful duos of any music genre.
On August 10, 2009, the BIG announcement came when they informed fans they would be breaking up. They released the shocking news via their website with these words: “After 20 years of making music and riding this trail together, we have agreed as a duo that it’s time to call it a day. This ride has been everything and more than we could ever have dreamed.”
They added: “We owe it all to you, the fans. If you hear rumors, don’t believe them, it’s just time.” The announcement came less than a month before the September 8th release of their CD titled: NUMBER #1’s.
As for news of the break up, Kix said they didn’t keep it secret very well. “Apparently someone found out,” he said. “There were only four people that knew and we just wanted to do a press release and try to make that announcement the right way. But what the heck! It’s out and it is good. The only thing about that, there are bloggers that get a hold of it. And rumors start going. Everybody comes up with their own idea of why? If there was fight that went down, and who did this, and we didn’t want a bunch of junk floating around.”
“I am proud of our career [together] and I don’t want it tarnished by people who don’t know what they are talking about.”
At this point, Ronnie interjected a comment: “Controversy is good, though. I mean it sells if something should happen bad! No matter what you say, it is gonna get screwed around, so who cares?”
Kix added, “That is the bottom line; it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day.”
“I love reading the comments,” said Ronnie. “There are people who have strong opinions. You know, ‘That’s awful, that’s terrible.’ The [blogs] that say, ‘Who cares?’ at the bottom make me laugh! That is the nature of the business and of people too.”
Now, travel back in time to 1990. Bringing these two talents together was the brainchild of country music executive Tim Dubois. He matched these total opposites into musical “GOLD.”
“He put Ronnie and me together,” said Kix. “He told us to write some songs and said he might slot us as a duo, so we wrote ‘Brand New Man’ and ‘My Next Broken Heart’ and brought them in and he gave us the deal… that is the short story.”
They had both worked as singer-songwriters before the duo’s formation, charting singles of their own in the late 1980s. They both also had record deals. At that time, Tim was head honcho of the Arista label and had a musical gut instinct like no other. Under Tim’s leadership, Arista was to become the leading label by the mid 1990s.
Under Tim’s reign, several extremely talented artists came to prominence following the dynamic duo, including Lee Roy Parnell, Pam Tillis, Michelle Wright and Diamond Rio. Oooops… How could I forget B & D’s platinum soul mate (and label mate) Alan Jackson!
So why have they called it quits after a record-breaking 19 years?
At a recent ‘round robin’ interview with a number of reporters, Kix thought back to when he and Ronnie first got together as Brooks and Dunn. “Our big dream was a gold record, maybe awards, tours or number ones,” he said. “It has been quite a ride.”
Ronnie was asked how things had changed over the years and how that had played a part in the decision of breaking up.
“We go though phases and trends,” said Ronnie. “But when a certain situation doesn’t feel good anymore, I think it is time for a change. I think you have to let the music dictate that. It has been a good ride and amicable. We are good friends and still are. I just want to do something different.”
So when they knew they’d be moving on, was there an emotion of a relief or a feeling of a new excitement? According to Ronnie: “It’s always been based on getting excited about the music that you do.”
When the guys were asked if they have looked beyond the final tour to what the next chapter will be after all of this is said and done, Kix replied, “Well, I think neither of us will quit making music. It is what we do and again it is like with a band, and with a duo it is even harder. We’re both guys. For 20 years with a couple of hard heads like us to compromise basically which you have to do.”
“It’s like a marriage. You have something that keeps you together. When you’re compromising you are constantly giving up and generally way more than you take from a relationship, no matter how successful it is.”
Kix continued, “I’m the first one to say what a great singer Ronnie is and, hell, I was writing songs ten years before I ever met him. I had a lot going on. So for all the wonderful things I’ve had, because of his great talent and the success, he’s had to do the same thing. It’s like he’s got his mind set on exactly what he wants to do, what he wants to sing. But he’s going ‘Kix, has the piece of real estate over here and I’ve gotta give him some of that.’ So you know, for 20 years we’ve been doing that and that is a long time. We’ve given and we’ve taken. We’ve made it work. We’ve overcome numerous occasions, where our egos and whatever a lot longer than most bands or duos have and I am really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, and all the amazing times we had on stage.”
Kix paused for a moment, and then added, “God! We’ve just had so many nights just going, ‘Holy cow!’ How many people would give anything in the world to have a night like that, and that is something, the memories, we don’t have to give back. We’ve always got that.”
Brooks & Dunn have released 16 albums and charted more than fifty singles, twenty of which have reached number one. If I have counted right, over 58 awards fill their respective ‘Award’ rooms.
If you are already experiencing separation anxiety, don’t fret just yet. Kix and Ronnie recently promised, “We will come see you all one more time in 2010, with The Last Rodeo Tour.” The tour dates to be announced.
Both have interests outside the “Brooks & Dunn” music business. Kix is still writing songs. He also has the Arrington Vineyards, a premiere winery located just outside of Nashville. Ronnie continues with his first love, songwriting and various other interests and projects. And both Ronnie and Kix insist that it is an amicable separation.
So how did their families react when they heard there would be one last tour together?
Said Ronnie, “Janine had no mercy! She said, ‘Hopefully you will book more dates and be out of the house more!’ she said, ‘Go out there and find a bunch of VFW’s. There’s tons of them in Texas probably 300. You can be gone that many days a year!’”
Kix added, “It is really all good at my house. It is not like either one hasn’t saved our money. Heck, it has been a big part of our lives. But at the same time, like Ronnie said, we’re not dead and we’ve both lots of stuff going on. We’ll both be making music down the road. And we’re gonna try and wrap this thing up next year as cool as we can. You know right now we’re just trying to come up with a great set, a great look. We’re gonna try and make everything sound good and come up with songs we have not played in years.”
“That is one thing I think that contributed to our just getting frustrated. We have one or two new songs every year. But we do bang out the same songs year after year, and this is kind of our opportunity. We haven’t really started working on the set list, but we’ve been kicking ideas back and forth. We need to dig out some of those songs we haven’t played in a while and there are a lot of them. Gosh,” he noted. “I just think about “She Used To Be Mine” and “My Next Broken Heart,” songs we used to play that wore well, God, you play for an hour and a half on a Sunday night, and these people start to get tired out there. And that’s always kind of been our motto. We don’t want to just make people tired of our songs.”
“I’m excited about putting something together that will be great and a great way of saying good bye…next year.”
Have we heard the last of Brooks and Dunn? There’ll probably be a “best of” or “greatest hits” album, maybe with some previously unreleased material. But with two highly creative talents like Kix and Ronnie, the real excitement will come from the solo projects that are to emerge, projects that will reveal the music that is a new stage in their musical evolution.
Special thanks to Sam Tempe for contributing research for this article.
Tags: brooks & dunn, brooks and dunn, country music, country music news, retirement
