Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn
Brooks & Dunn: A Lot of Miles & Not Slowing Down
Web-exclusive excerpts from the Brooks & Dunn interview in the October 8, 2007, issue of CW.
After 17 years together, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are still "addicted" to the music, excited about their new album and proud of the career they've built.
Here are some excerpts from the exclusive interview Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn did with CW Senior Editor David Scarlett not long before the release of their latest album, Cowboy Town. The album contains some strong material, and the boys were more than willing to talk about the new tunes and their amazing career.
CW: One of my favorite lines in “Johnny Cash Junky Buck Owens Freak” is Old Boys like Merle, that Man in Black … said what they wanted, never looked back. Do you wish you were more free to say exactly what you want … when you want to say it … without worrying about it being twisted out of context or in some other way coming back to haunt you?
RD: We all wish that … we all wish that. You know? We look back at Johnny … we look back at Willie … and we say, “Yeah, they were outlaws first of all.” That’s what they were labeled. In reality, knowin’ what we know now, they were outlaws, and they said what they wanted to. But they played the game just like everybody else. But they found a not-so-graceful way to show that they were human and get what they wanted across. That line … I struggled with that line for a long time. That line at first was … We fought together to keep that train on track. And my wife, who was dear friends with John and June, she goes, “Nah. They said what they wanted and they never looked back.” I’d read that line back to her as we were puttin’ the song together. She went, ”No, bring that out.” It’s funny that you bring it up.
CW: I know you co-wrote a lot of tunes with excellent writers, but because you had so many great songs, many of them didn't make it on the album. Is that a difficult phone call—telling your co-writers, "Listen, it's a great song, but not this time"?
KB: Sure, that’s all part of it.
RD: I’ve got guys goin’, “Man, that’s the best song I’ve ever written.” I say, "I agree with you … I agree with you, man, it is." And I say, "I will never stop pushing for that song. It didn’t make this record, but I will never stop.” But that’s a good place to be. It could be worse.
KB: We’re sensitive to that, too. I wrote songs for a livin’ for 10 years before I met Ronnie. And I know … I’ve had that heartbreak more than once. It’s not like we don’t care. I’ve been on that side of the fence. I know what it means to those guys to have a cut on this record. It’s important.
CW: Which if the two of you will shed a tear faster … what really gets to you? Are you sentimental?
RD: Oh, you push the right button and we’ll both go there
KB: I don’t well up much. When I do, it’s usually about something in a movie or something … and I have no idea why it even got me.
CW: The last words in "Cowgirls Don't Cry" are Cowgirl don’t cry / The Good Lord calls everybody home. Have you guys thought much about your own mortality? What would you want to say to your kids when your time comes to go?
RD: I think the longer you live, the more you realized how fast time flies. I wish I could convey that to my kids.
KB: Everybody says it. You don’t get it until you get there. Kids are immortal, invincible.
RD: The days are so long for kids.
KB: You can’t wait to get old when you’re a kid. You can’t wait to grow up.
CW: Have there been really tangible moments in your own lives when you’ve known with certainty … God heard your prayer?
RD:I went to my knees … the only time I’ve done it … I dropped to my knees in a field in Oklahoma … years ago. I said, “I’ve come to the end of my rope. This is it. I’ve done it.” And I had. I was with a weed eater a mile out in the middle of some 106-degree prairie in a field. I asked … I said, "I’m either gonna make it in this business or I have ruined my life … I don’t know where to go, what to do.” And I turned around and started walkin’ back down the road and here comes [wife] Janine in her Jeep. Through the heat, you could see the Jeep comin’. And she said, “A guy named Tim Dubois, just called and said for you to call him.” I knew who he was [a Nashville record executive], but we hadn’t been corresponding … at all. I went and picked up the phone and he goes … this must be karma … he says, “I want to take ‘Boot Scoot’ and cut it for a single with Asleep at the Wheel.' I’m like … ”Ahhh, that’s not what I wanted to hear.” But that’s good … [Kix laughs] at least someone on the end of the line liked it. But it happened that quick, just like that. That’s really the first time I felt … all the religious training I had … I went to school and … the one thing I remember them teaching that really stuck with me was when it is truly the end of the line—truly—and your pride and everything you have is washed out of the picture … when you have no choice … where you could never doubt … that it’s coming from some other place [snaps fingers] … just like that … lightning striking right where you are, that happened. And it started all this … it started it.
CW: What are a couple things you each are sure of?
RD: As sure as we’re born, we’re gonna die. I think we should teach people that more from the day we’re born. I think we’d appreciate life more. That’s the only thing we’re sure of … you don’t know anything else, nothin’.
KB: I can’t dispute that. I tell you, the longer I live, the more comfortable I am with just being as open and honest as I possibly can with the way I do things. You know, I don’t feel like I’ve ever been … I like to think that I’ve never been dishonest or anything like that … but in our business, there’s so much goin’ on around you that’s so many untold stories … I guess we’re in so many different businesses … it’s fun when you have a handful of friends and people you do business with that you can really trust. I do feel like the people right around us are all really trustworthy. When I hear about—talkin’ in terms of the music business—how people over the years have just been milked and just lied to or whatever. Ronnie’s brutally honest, and I think that’s a good thing. He has to do it in e-mail a lot of times. We do tend to cut through the crap in our camp. I feel really fortunate that way. To have just been thrown into a partnership like we have … and 17 years now to know that nobody’s every screwed anybody that I can think of … in all this time, you know? We don’t have any partnership contracts or anything between us like that. How lucky is that?
My dad was a real good, honest man. I watched the way he did business. I don’t think of myself as being naïve, but I go into relationships pretty much trusting people. It’s not like you never run into somebody who’s not honest … that’s not really an answer to your question. But I guess the older I get, that’s important. Now, I really do believe that people are good … that there are good people … people who do good things for the right reasons. I like to think of myself as one of those people. The longer I live and run into more people, it’s like, there really is a good vein running through this thing, you know? I trust the people around me.
For more Brooks & Dunn, check out the Oct. 8 issue of Country Weekly.
- October 1, 2007
- B&D photo Russ Harrington/Sony BMG
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