After years of staying quiet, Ronnie Dunn, now 71, has finally opened up about the truth behind Brooks & Dunn, the duo that changed country music forever. And what he revealed has left longtime fans feeling both shocked and deeply moved.
In a rare and candid interview, Ronnie looked back on the decades he spent performing with Kix Brooks, reflecting on the highs, the lows, and the moments that nearly broke them apart — and brought them back together again.
“People think we were just two guys thrown together who got lucky,” Ronnie said, “but it was way more complicated than that.”
He admitted that in the early days, there was tension — two strong personalities, both deeply passionate about music, trying to make one voice out of two lives.
“We didn’t always agree,” he said with a half-smile. “But we always respected the music. That’s what kept us going.”
And then, he paused.
“There was a point where I thought it was over for good,” Ronnie confessed, referring to their 2010 split. “I was tired. Burned out. I felt like I didn’t know who I was outside of the duo.”
But the silence, he said, didn’t last forever.
In that quiet space, Ronnie found healing — and clarity.
“I realized I missed it — not just the music, but the brotherhood. The bond we didn’t talk about. I missed Kix.”
Their reunion, he says, wasn’t planned. It came naturally. A phone call. A memory. A moment that reminded them why they started in the first place.
“We had unfinished business,” Ronnie said simply.
Today, Brooks & Dunn are stronger than ever — not just as musicians, but as men who’ve walked through fire and come out the other side with grace and grit.
“It was never about fame,” Ronnie said in closing. “It was about telling the truth — in songs, in stories, in harmony. And that’s what we’ll keep doing, as long as the fans will have us.”
The truth may have taken years to surface, but now that it has, one thing is certain:
The story of Brooks & Dunn isn’t just country music history — it’s a story of resilience, reconciliation, and real friendship.