Brooks & Dunn Call It Quits After 20 Years

By Raymond Loesch • August 11, 2009

Brooks & Dunn posted a message on their website today saying they have decided to call it a day. In the following letter to their fans:
BrooksandDunn

To Our Fans:

After 20 years of making music and riding this trail together, we have
agreed as a duo that it’s time call it a day. This ride has been
everything and more than we could ever have dreamed…. We owe it all
to you, the fans. If you hear rumors, don’t believe them, it’s just
time.

We will release our #1’s and then some” on September 8th and bid
you farewell one last time in 2010, with The Last Rodeo Tour…(dates to be
announced).

Brooks & Dunn

Kix Brooks, 54 and Ronnie Dunn, 56 had worked as singer-songwriters before the duo came together as Brooks & Dunn in 1991. Their first four singles all reached the top of the Billboard country music charts. “Brand New Man”, was released the same year and was certified 6 times platinum. Brooks & Dunn have had more than 40 singles on the country charts with 23 of them making number 1. Having recorded 10 studio albums(the latest 2007’s “Cowboy Town”), 2 greatest hits albums and a Christmas album on the Arista Nashville label. Brooks & Dunn have won the prestigious Vocal Duo of the Year award every year between 1992 and 2006, except for 2000 which went to Montgomery Gentry. Two of their singles have been named number one country single of the year by Billboard Magazine: “My Maria” and “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You”. They have two Grammies and three American Music Awards. They are very involved in the Nashville community, Brooks &Dunn received the Home Depot Humanitarian Award in 2006.

Brooks & Dunn are renowned for their high-energy stage shows. In 2008, Brooks & Dunn paired up with ZZ Top and Rodney Atkins for a tour entitled Cowboy Town. This concert has been shown on GAC as well. Other recent tours have featured Australian country singer Keith Urban, fellow duo Montgomery Gentry, and Gretchen Wilson. Their Deuces Wild tour of 2005 featured fellow country duo Big and Rich. In 2006, the duo opened for the Rolling Stones at their Omaha, Nebraska show. Also in 2006, they toured with country artist Sara Evans and embarked on their The Long Haul Tour, which featured artists Jack Ingram and Sugarland.

The duo’s songs have been used by President George W. Bush as his official campaign songs in both his 2000 election and 2004 re-election campaigns. In 2000 then Texas Governor Bush chose the blue-collar line-dance-friending hit of the mid-1990s, “Hard Workin’ Man,” and in 2004 the President selected the patriotic hit, “Only in America.” Brooks & Dunn both supported the President’s re-election campaign, performing at a Republican rally featuring Laura Bush on the eve of the election. “Only in America” was played after President Barack Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech in 2008.

Discography:

Studio albums

* 1991 – Brand New Man
* 1993 – Hard Workin’ Man
* 1994 – Waitin’ on Sundown
* 1996 – Borderline
* 1998 – If You See Her
* 1999 – Tightrope
* 2001 – Steers & Stripes
* 2003 – Red Dirt Road
* 2005 – Hillbilly Deluxe
* 2007 – Cowboy Town

Compilation albums

* 1997 – The Greatest Hits Collection
* 1999 – Super Hits
* 2002 – It Won’t Be Christmas Without You
* 2004 – The Greatest Hits Collection II
* 2008 – Playlist: The Very Best of Brooks & Dunn
* 2009 – #1s… and Then Some