Brooks & Dunn
Kix Brooks (b. Leon Eric Brooks, 12 May 1955, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA). Ronnie Gene Dunn (b. 1 June 1953, Coleman, Texas, USA). As an adolescent, Brooks (no relation to Garth) lived close to Johnny Horton and sang with Horton's daughter. He moved to Nashville and found success as a songwriter, co-penning a US country number l by John Conlee (I'm Only In It For The Love) in 1983, and then the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Modern Day Romance) and Highway 101's Who's Lonely Now. Having limited success with There's A Telephone Ringing, he wanted to make it as a solo performer but his Capitol Records debut album, KIX BROOKS, in 1989 made little impression, all songs being written by Brooks with 11 other writers. Although Ronnie Dunn (no relation to Holly) planned to be a Baptist minister, he could not equate it with his love of honkytonks and eventually he was leading the houseband at Duke's Country, a successful club in Tulsa. He had minor US country chart entries with It's Written All Over Your Face and She Put The Sad In All His Songs. After winning a talent contest in 1989, he moved to Nashville and Arista's vice-president, Tim DuBois, suggested that they try to write some songs together. They came up with Brand New Man and as they sounded good together and got along well, they became the duo, Brooks And Dunn. Their high-energy, debut album sold three million copies and yielded four chart-topping country singles and one of them, the line-dancing Boot Scootin' Boogie, was also a US pop hit. The song also appears in a techno-dance version on their second album and as Brooks says, 'We added a synthesiser and pumped this hillbilly record full of steroids.' Hard Workin' Man was an anthem for the working man while Rock My World (Little Country Girl), with its Rolling Stones-styled intro, boasted eight international versions and a video. Their stage act features a manic performance by Brooks, complete with duckwalks and wild leaps. Not surprisingly, they have won CMA Vocal Duo Of The Year awards and with their success, they have been able to design and model western shirts for Panhandle Slim.