Brooks & Dunn

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn formed Brooks & Dunn in Nashville in 1988 at the suggestion of songwriter and producer Tim DuBois. Both had already released solo singles in the 1980s, and Brooks had put out an album on Capitol Records and written hit singles for other artists before the pairing began. The duo signed to Arista Nashville.

Their run through the 1990s helped define mainstream country radio of the era, mixing uptempo honky-tonk and Western swing with slower ballads. Their 1992 single 'Boot Scootin' Boogie' helped repopularize line dancing across the country, while 'Only in America' was later used in the presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Across eleven studio albums for Arista, the duo released fifty singles, twenty of which reached number one on the Hot Country Songs chart. Their cover of 'My Maria' was Billboard's top country song of 1996, and 'Ain't Nothing 'bout You' held the same spot in 2001. They won the Country Music Association's Vocal Duo of the Year award almost every year between 1992 and 2006, and again in 2024.

Beyond the singles that filled dance floors, the duo recorded material like the ballad 'Believe' and the shuffling 'Red Dirt Road', and won Grammy Awards for 'Hard Workin' Man' and 'My Maria'. Their 1991 debut, Brand New Man, is certified six-times platinum, and most of their other albums have gone platinum or higher.

They announced a farewell in 2009 and played a final show at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena in 2010, after which each pursued solo work, Brooks also hosting radio. The pair reunited in 2015 for concerts in Las Vegas with Reba McEntire, entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019, and later recorded a collaborations album pairing their catalogue with younger country artists including Luke Combs.