I Can’t Sleep - Brooks & Dunn | Can’t Sleep? Learn About Country Music’s Hit Duo

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

For more than three decades, Brooks & Dunn helped define the sound of modern country music. This episode explores how Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn came together, the rise of their career, their biggest hits, and the lasting impact they had on country music. Along the way, you’ll hear about their albums, live performances, awards, and the songs that made them one of the best-selling duos in music history. It’s steady and consistent, with no whispering and no sudden changes, just enough to give your mind something to follow as you wind down. Happy sleeping! Read with permission from Brooks & Dunn, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_%26_Dunn), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. — Ad-free episodes: ⁠icantsleep.supportingcast.fm⁠Have a topic in mind? ⁠Request a topic⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to talk ETS with the people behind them? Join me, Etienne Jean-Cabouchard on the Upside Ticker Talk. We dive into what's moving markets with timely analysis, trends, and answers to ETF questions you've actually been thinking about. Hit play on the upside ticker talk and elevate your ETF investing IQ. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. And today's episode is about Brooks and Dunn.

Real Canadian Superstore has everything you need this back-to-school season. Save on lunchbox savers like Ziggy's sliced deli-meat products for always 375. And get life brand pure Vita shampoo or conditioner for $8 each. At Real Canadian Superstore, when you're ready, we're ready, with a whole world and more. This episode is a happy birthday present for Dom and a special thank you for all your help on the podcast. Brooks and Dunn are an American country music duo. consisting of kicks brooks and ronny dunn both of whom are vocalists and songwriters the duo was founded in nineteen eighty eight through the suggestion of songwriter and record producer tim de bois before their formation both members were solo recording artists having each charted two solo singles in the nineteen eighties kicks brooks also released an album for capital

records in 1989 and wrote hit singles for other artists. The duo signed to Arista Nashville after their formation. They have recorded 11 studio albums, one Christmas album, and five compilation albums for the label. They also have released 50 singles, of which 20 went to number one on the Hot Country Songs chart, and 19 more reach top 10. Two of these number one songs, My Maria, a posthumous cover of the 1973 B.W. Stevens hit, and Ain't Nothing About You, were the top country songs of 1996 and 2001, respectively, according to the Billboard Year End charts. The latter is also the duo's longest last.

casting number one single on that chart at six weeks. Several of their songs have also reached the Billboard Hot 100, was the number 25 peaks of Ain't Nothing About You, and Red Dirt Road being their highest there. Brooks and Dunn also won the Country Music Association vocal duo of the year award every year between 1992 and 2006, except for 2000. Brooks and Dunn won the award again in 2024. Two of their songs won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal,

hard work in man in 1994, and My Maria in 1996. All but two of the duo's studio albums are certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America. Their highest certified is their 1991 debut album, Brand New Man, which is certified sextuple platinum for shipments of 6 million copies. The deal's material is known for containing influences of honky-tonk, mainstream country, and rock, as well as a contrast between their singing voices and on-stage personalities.

although some of their music has also been criticized as formulaic. Their 1992 single Bootskud and Boogie helped repopularize line dancing in the United States. Brooks and Dunn have collaborated with several artists, including Reba McIntyre, Vince Gill, Cheryl Crow, MacPowell, Billy Gibbons, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Luke Combs. After announcing their retirement in August 2009, they performed their final concert on September 2, 2010, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Both Brooks and Dunn have continued to record for heiress to Nashville as solo artists. Dunn released a self-titled album in 2011, which included the top 10 country hit Bleed Red,

while Brooks released new to this town in September 2012. The duo reunited in 2015 for a series of concerts was Reba McIntyre and Las Vegas. In 2019, the duo was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Leon Eric Kicks, Brooks, the 3rd, was born on May 12, 1955, in Shreveport, Louisiana, and before moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 1976, he played at various venues in Maine. He was also a neighbor of country singer Johnny Horton. Brooks worked as a songwriter in the 1980s,

co-writing the number one singles, I'm only in it for the love by John Conley. Modern-day romance by the nitty-gritty-dirty band. And Who's Lonely Now? by highway one o one plus the oakridge boys top twenty hit you made a rock of a rolling stone nicolette larsons let me be the first and keith palmer's don't throw me in the briar patch brooks also released several singles through the independent avian label charting at number seventy three on hot country songs in nineteen eighty three with baby when your heart breaks down In 1989, he released a self-titled studio album through Capitol Records. This album included Baby When Your Heart Breaks Down and Sacred Ground,

which McBride and The Ride Covered and took to number two on the country charts in 1992. Brooks and Pam Tillis co-wrote and sang on Tomorrow's World, a multi-artist single released on Warner Brothers Records in 1990. in honor of Earth Day. Brooks also co-produced and co-wrote Backbone Job, a Keith Whitley outtake that appeared in his 1991 compilation album, Kentucky Blueprint. Ronnie Gene Dunn was born on June 1, 1953 in Coleman, Texas. He played bass guitar and local bands during high school,

and he briefly studied theology at Hardin Simmons University, was the intention of becoming a Baptist preacher. Dunn was kicked out of the school because he played in bars. Between 1983 and 1984, he recorded for the Churchill label, taking both its written all over your face and she put the sad in all his songs to number 59 on the country charts.

In 1989, session drummer Jamie Oldacre entered Dunn in a talent contest sponsored by Marlborough, which he won. The Grand Prize in the competition included a recording session in Nashville, Tennessee. The producer of that session, Scott Hendricks, recommended Dunn's recordings to Tim Dubois, then an executive of heiress to Nashville. Dubois paired Brooks and Dunn because he thought that they would work well together as songwriters. and after the two recorded a demo, he suggested that they form a duo. During this time span, Dunn also wrote Bootskud and Boogie,

which, asleep at the wheel, recorded on their 1990 album, Keeping Me Up Nights. Brooks and Dunn's first single, Brand New Man, entered the Hot Country Songs charts in June 1991, and went to number one. It was the title track to the duo's debut album, Brand New Man, which was released two months later. Brooks and Dunn wrote this song and several other cuts in collaboration with songwriter Don Cook, who co-produced the album with Hendricks. It was also Cook's first credit as a producer.

The next three single releases from Brand New Man, My Next Broken Heart, Neo Moon, and their own rendition of Bootskud and Boogie, all made number one on the country music charts as well, making for the first time in country music history that a duo or group had sent its first four singles to the top of the charts. A fifth single, lost and found, peaked at number six. Bootskud and Bootskudgy, which had previously been the B-Sy-Sides, to My Next Broken Heart, also made number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100, and its commercial success

led to a renewal interest in line dancing throughout the United States. Brand new man was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in August 1992 for shipments of one million copies. By 2002, the album had been certified Sex Tuple, platinum for shipments of 6 million. It spent more than 190 weeks on the top country albums charts. In 1992, the duo won the Duo of the Year award from the Country Music Association, which also nominated them for that year's album of the year and Horizon Awards. Brooks and Dunn won the Association's Duo Award for every year from then on until 2006, except for 2000, when the award went to Montgomery Gentry. After the album's release, Brooks and Dunn began touring as well.

Hardworking Men was the title of Brooks and Dunn's second album, which was released in 1993. The title track, also its first single, peaked at number four on the country music charts. The album included two number one singles in its third and fifth releases. She used to be mine, and its B-side, That Ain't No Way to Go. We'll burn that bridge and Rock My World both made top five on Billboard, was the former reaching number one on radio and records. Also included on the album was a remix of Boots Coot and Boogie. In 1994, Hardworking Man won the Duo, a Grammy Award,

for the Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and the album was nominated for Best Country Album. Hardworking Man earned its highest R-I-A-A certification in 2000. when it was certified quintuple platinum. By the end of 1994, the duo released their third studio album, Waiting on Sundown. It also produced five charting singles, three of which made number one on the country charts. She's Not the Cheating Kind, Little Miss Honky Tunk, and You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone. The other two singles, I'll Never Forgive My Heart and Whiskey Under the Bridge, both made Top Ten.

The first single from Brooks and Dunn's fourth album, Borderline, was a cover version of B.W. Stevenson's 1973 single, My Maria. Their version of the song spent three weeks at number one in mid-1996, and peaked at number 79 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also that year's top country song, according to the Billboard Year End charts. Dunn said that he was initially reluctant to record My Maria because the duo had not previously recorded any cover songs. The song won Brooks and Dunn at second Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a group or duo,

and the duo won the 1996 Entertainer of the Year Award from both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music, making them the first duo to win that award from the former. In 1997, Brooks and Dunn joined a double headliner tour with Reba McIntyre. Borderline produced another number one in A Man This Lonely, along with top ten hits, I am that man, and why would I say goodbye? Mama don't get dressed up for nothing. The third single and B-side to My Maria

became their first release not to make the top ten. The first greatest hits compilation was released on September 6, 1997. It comprised most of their singles to that point, and three new songs honky-tong truth he's got you and days of thunder the first two were released as singles with respective peaks of three and two on the country charts The greatest hits collection was certified platinum in April 1998 and double platinum in 2001. Brooks and Dunn collaborated with Reba McIntyre to perform If You See Him, If You See Her, which was the lead-off single to Brooks and Dunn's If You See Her and McIntyres, If You See Him, both of which were released on the same day.

Arista Nashville and M.C.A. Nashville, the label to which McIntyre was signed, both promoted the single. This cut went to number one, as did if you see hers next two singles, how long gone, and a cover of Roger Miller's Husbands and Wives, which also became the duo's first Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Dunn recorded the vocals for husbands and wives in one take. also included on the album was a cover of mark collies born and raised in black and white the first song of the duo's career in which they alternated on lead vocals the album's fourth single was i can't get over you which was a top five countryhood following it was south of santa fe which peaked at number forty one on the country charts

thus becoming the duo's lowest peaking single there. In 2001, if you see her, reached double platinum certification in the United States. Tightrope, 1999, the duo's sixth album, was also its least commercially successful release. It included three singles, a cover of John Waits, missing you, followed by Beer 30, and you will always be loved by me. The former two failed to make top ten, while the latter peaked at number five in 2000. Dunn co-wrote some songs on this album

with McBride and the ride, lead singer and bassist Terry McBride, who would later join Brooks and Dunn's road band, and Brooks collaborated with Bob DePiro. The duo shared production duties with Byron Gallimore, and all three singles and four other songs on the album, while retaining Cook as producer on the other six. While Beer 30 was climbing, the album cut,

Go and Under getting over you, charted as high as number 60 based on unsolicited airplay. In addition to persuading the duo to stay together, Galant suggested that they record the song, Ain't Nothing About You, because he felt it had potential as a hit. The song served as the lead single from their seventh album, 2001's, Steers and Stripes. It became their longest-lasting number one, with a six-week stay at that position.

This song was the second song of the duo's career to be named the top single of the year, according to Billboard Year End. It was also their highest peak on the Billboard's career. board hot 100 at the time, peaking at number 25 there. The next two singles from steers and stripes both made number one as well, only in America, and the long goodbye, the latter of which was written by Irish pop singers Ronan Keaton and Paul Brady. After it, the duo charted at number five with My Heart is Lost to You, and number 12 with a cover of Kim Ritchie's Every River, featuring a back vocal by Richie.

All of these other singles also made the top charts. Brooks and Dunn released their first Christmas album in 2002 titled, It Won't Be Christmas Without You. Four of its cuts made the country music charts based on seasonal airplay. The title track, Hanging Round the Missletoe, Rocking Little Christmas, and a rendition of Winter Wonderland. It was followed in early 2003 by the duo's eighth studio album, Red Dirt Road, whose title track became the duo's 18th number one on Billboard.

Two more singles were released from it. You can't take the honky-tong out of the girl, which spent five weeks in the number three position, and that's what she gets for loving me at number six. On the Hot 100, these songs respectively peaked at 25, 39, and 53. As with Steers and Stripes, Red Dirt Road was certified platinum. The album featured a rock-oriented sound compared to the duo's previous releases. Arista Nashville released Brooks and Dunn's second greatest hits package,

The Greatest Hits Collection 2 in October 2004. The album included singles from If You See Her, Steers and Stripes, Red Dirt Road, and the previously unreleased, that's what it's all about, and it's getting better all the time. Respectively, these cuts peaked at numbers 2 and 1 on the country music charts, as well as 38 and 56 on the hot ones. It excludes material from tightrope. In August 2005, the duo released the single Play Something Country.

According to Dunn and co-writer Terry McBride, it was inspired by Gretchen Wilson, who was touring with Brooks and Dunn and big and rich on the Deuce's Wild tour at the time. Play Something Country was the lead-off to their ninth studio album. Hillbilly Deluxe. Brooks and Dunn co-produced it with Tony Brown, with further production from Mark Wright on My Heart's Not a Hotel. A month after the album's release, Play Something Country, became the duo's 20th

and final number one on Hot Country Songs, and went to number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, Believe, peaked at number eight, also winning the next year's single of the year and Song of the Year awards from the Country Music Association. After it was Building Bridges, with guest vocals from Vince Gill and Cheryl Crowe, which peaked at number four. Before the duo released this song, it had been released by co-writer Larry Willoughby, a cousin of country singer Rodney Crowell, and later by Nicola Larson. The final release from Hillbilly Deluxe was the title track, which peaked at number 16 on Hot Country Songs. Their 10th studio album, Cowboy Town, was released on October 2, 2007.

Its lead-off single, Proud of the House We Build, reached number four on the country charts, and 57 on the Hot 100. Following this song, where God must be busy at number 11, and put a girl in it at number 3. After this song, the duo released Cow Girls Don't Cry, which they later performed with Reba McIntyre at the Country Music Association Awards. Following this performance, the song was re-released partway through its chart run, was McIntyre dubbed into the final chorus. In early 2009, the song peaked at number two in the country charts. Although not released as a single, the title track spent three weeks on the charts

and peaked at number 56. Also included on the album is a collaboration with Jerry Jeff Walker on the Ballad of Jerry Jeff Walker. Cowboy Town was also the name of the duo's 2009 tour, which featured Rodney Atkins and ZZ Top. The tour began on June 6 at the Bama Jam Festival in Enterprise, Alabama. On August 10, 2009, Brooks and Dunn announced that they would be splitting up after a tour titled The Last Rodeo.

According to Brooks, the decision to split was on good terms. He told CMT that Dunn and he are still good friends. While Dunn said, we've ended up more like brothers. The duo released its final compilation, number ones, and then some, on September 8th of the same year. The album features 28 past hits and two new songs, but again skipping material from tightrope. Both of these new songs, Indian Summer and Honky Tong Stomp, featuring Gell, vocals from Billy Gibbons and ZZ Top, peaked at number 16 on the country music charts. On May 23, 2010, CBS aired a tribute show presented by the Academy of Country Music, titled

The Last Rodeo, on which various country music stars performed Brooks and Dunn songs, while the duo received a milestone award. On December 3, 2014, Brooks and Duns were announced to be reuniting to perform a series of concerts in Las Vegas with Reba McIntyre in mid to late 2015. In 2016 they were selected as some of the 30 artists to perform on Forever Country, a mash-up track featuring the artists performing a medley of Take Me Home Country Roads, On the Road again, and I Will Always Love You, which was released in celebration of 50 years of the CMA Awards. In February 2019, the duo announced a new album called Reboot, which features re-recordings of

their previous singles, with guest vocals from contemporary country music artists. In advance of the album's release, they issued two of their tracks, a version of Brand New Man was Luke Combs, and Believe featuring Kane Brown. In addition, Brooke, Brooke, and Dunn announced a concert in Dallas, alongside their Las Vegas residency, as well as a March 2019 appearance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Reboot was released on April 5th, 2019. Brooks and Dunn announced a sequel album to reboot in 2024, titled Reboot 2. It includes re-recordings of their previous hit singles with other country music artists, such as Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, and Megan Maroney.

Unlike the previous project, it also includes collaborations with rock band Halestorm and blues singer Marcus King. The album was released on November 15, 2024.