Show notes
Brooks & Dunn have done it again. The iconic Country duo has welcomed a new generation of music fans to their timeless classics with, REBOOT 2, a sequel to their highly-popular album from 2019, REBOOT.
The project, available now, follows the same format as the 2019 release with several of today’s biggest Country stars joining the duo for reimagined versions of their most iconic songs. They include Lainey Wilson (“Play Something Country”), Morgan Wallen (“Neon Moon”), and Ernest (“Indian Summer”) in addition to some out-of-genre artists like Halestorm (“Boot Scootin’ Boogie”) and The Earls of Leicester (“How Long Gone”). On top of already being timeless classics, the collaborations with artists of other genres and generations have brought the magic of Brooks & Dunn’s music to even more music fans across the globe.
“It’s really fun to ask the audience every night, ‘How many of y’all it’s your first Brooks & Dunn show?’” Kix Brooks told Audacy’s Katie Neal in an interview earlier this month. “About a half to two-thirds raise their hand,” Ronnie Dunn responded. “It’s wild,” added Kix. “The first time I did it [asked] I looked at Ronnie and we just grinned at went, ‘Whattt?! Welcome to the party y’all!’”
Not only is the duo getting in front of new fans at their own shows, but they recently got the spotlight shed on them as newly crowned CMA Entertainer of the Year, Morgan Wallen, featured them as part of his famous “walk out” at a tour stop in Kansas City.
“That’s a trip,” Ronnie said, recalling the experience. “The only hint we got from his people was, ‘OK, Morgan’s gonna walk fast.’ So we were like, ‘OK, we’re gonna walk fast,’” he laughed.
Kix continued, “Theo Von (podcaster) made a great point about Morgan’s walk out. It’s like, he comes, you’re in the hallway, it’s like, ‘Hey dude! So great to see ya, high five, hug it out, c’mon let’s go,’ the crowd’s going wild… everybody going crazy, we’re right there with him and it’s like, ‘OK, you guys are done.’”
He added, “We’re used to going to the stage at that point and I was like, ‘Oh, OK. Back to the dressing room. Thank you, we’ll see you in about two hours. OK, whatever.’”
Come 2025, the duo will get to continue that energy right onto the stage at they embark on their Neon Moon Tour kicking off in Lubbock, TX on March 13. According to the guys, they’re ready to level-up the production after learning some new “tricks” during their Vegas residency, which wrapped in December 2021.
“One of the cool things about being in Vegas for the seven years we were there off-and-on was that we met some serious production people — like, the Cirque de Soleil guys that do all that video and all those effects,” shared Dunn. “So, we get to use them now, which is the cream of the crop.”
It will be quite the change from their touring days in the late ‘90s, early ‘00s when the duo recalls being in charge of all production ideas which resulted in shooting dummies out of cannons and creating “twin tornadoes” on stage.
“We do have a pretty long history of doing some ridiculous, nonsense,” said Kix. “Shooting ourselves out of a cannon was pretty classic… it didn’t last too long because it was really dangerous,” he shared before detailing the dummies that shot out into the front section of the crowd ultimately giving one woman a bloody nose. “It’s like shooting’ a missile into the audience,” Added Ronnie. “This is how stupid we were.”
Many lessons were learned the hard way for the pair, and with that, they’re grateful social media wasn’t around for their climb to success. “We wouldn’t be here,” Ronnie said with certainty when asked if social media would’ve hurt or helped their career in the early days. While the lack of documentation is a relief in many ways for the guys, they also say they believe it would keep them from being able to put together a documentary should they ever have the desire.
“We’d have to have ...
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