When he heard the results, DuBois signed the newly minted Brooks & Dunn duo to a contract.īrooks & Dunn issued their debut album, Brand New Man, in 1991, and it was an out-of-the-box smash. DuBois had a hunch that Dunn and Brooks would complement each other well, and he introduced the two and encouraged them to try writing and recording some demo songs together. In 1988, he won a songwriting contest whose prize included a recording session in Nashville the producer, Scott Hendricks, was impressed enough to pass some of Dunn's material on to Arista executive Tim DuBois. He decided to pursue music full-time and moved to Tulsa, where he led a house band and recorded for a local label from 1983-1984. He attended the highly conservative Abilene Christian University, but was kicked out for continuing to play music on the side in area bars. Dunn, meanwhile, had been playing with traditional string bands since he was a teenager, but originally aspired to become a Baptist minister. He went to Nashville in the early '80s and found success as a songwriter, penning hits for John Conlee, Highway 101, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, among others however, his solo recordings - a few small-label singles in 1983 and a self-titled album in 1989 - failed to make any impact.
Brooks was a neighbor of Johnny Horton and first began singing with the country legend's daughter at age 12 after a time working on the Alaskan oil pipeline, he moved to Maine and performed in ski resorts and other local venues. Leon Eric "Kix" Brooks (born in Shreveport, Louisiana) and Ronnie Gene Dunn (born in Coleman, Texas) arrived in Nashville from very different backgrounds.
The combination made them one of the most popular country artists of the '90s, and they were still going strong as the new millennium dawned. Neither had been able to break through as a solo act, but together they hit upon a winning formula of rambunctious, rocked-up honky tonk with punchy, danceable beats, and alternated those cuts with smooth, pop-tinged ballads. Ronnie Dunn was the quietly intense singer with the soulful voice, while Kix Brooks played the part of the high-energy showman. The undisputed kings of the '90s line-dancing craze, Brooks & Dunn are not only the biggest-selling duo in country music history, they've also sold more records than any other duo period, including Simon & Garfunkel.
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