Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, who are both vocalists and songwriters, make up the country music duo Brooks & Dunn. Tim DuBois’ idea led to the formation of the pair in 1990. Both members were solo recording artists prior to their formation. Each band member had two solo singles that reached the charts in the 1980s, and in 1989, Brooks also put out an album for Capitol Records and wrote hit songs for other artists.
The group formed in 1990 and signed with Arista Nashville in that year. For the label, they have recorded 11 studio albums, one-holiday album, and five compilation albums. Also, they’ve put out 50 singles, 20 of which peaked at number one on the Hot Country Songs charts and another 19 made the top 10. According to the Billboard Year-End lists, two of these number-one singles, “My Maria” (a copy of the B.W. Stevenson classic), and “Ain’t Nothing ’bout You,” respectively, were the top country hits of 1996 and 2001.
On September 2, 2010, at Nashville, Tennessee’s Bridgestone Arena, they gave their farewell performance after announcing their retirement in August 2009. As separate performers, Brooks and Dunn have both continued to record for Arista Nashville. The country music chart-topper “Bleed Red” was featured on Dunn’s self-titled album, which was released in 2011, while Brooks’ New to This Town was released in September 2012. The group got back together in 2015 for a run of Las Vegas shows featuring Reba McEntire. The group was admitted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019.