When David Begnaud of CBS Mornings sat down with Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn backstage at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana, he asked a simple question: what was the last thing the two of them had to compromise on? Ronnie Dunn did not have to think back very far. The answer was the record they are making right now.
It is the first album of brand-new Brooks & Dunn songs since Cowboy Town in 2007, close to twenty years ago. And by Dunn’s own account, every song on it is being earned the hard way.
“We’re Compromising Right Now”
Here is how Ronnie Dunn described the process, as quoted by Saving Country Music from the interview:
“We’re compromising right now. We’re working on a new record. You talk about the ultimate compromise. As songwriters, we’re firing stuff back and forth, you know, we’re criticizing one another’s music… I want all my songs on there, he wants all his songs on there. So we have to work that stuff out. And you sweat and bleed every word.”
That is not a picture of two legends coasting. Both men have written hits on their own. Both bring stacks of songs to the table. And only so many can make the album.
How Kix Brooks Says They Settle It
Kix Brooks added the part that explains how a partnership like this survives. The decision, in his telling, starts long before either man tries to convince the other:
“We both realize down deep, that song I wrote is better than that song I wrote. So you have to be honest with yourself and then at some point, we gotta be honest with each other.”
In other words, the first argument each man has is with himself. Only after he has picked his own best song does the real negotiation begin.
Plenty of Disagreements, Never a Raised Voice
In the same interview, the pair said that in all their years together they have disagreed many times, but they have never raised their voices at each other. They never reached a full falling-out, either, not even when they went their separate ways.
That split came in 2009, after nearly two decades of hits. Their Last Rodeo Tour wrapped at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena in September 2010. When they came back, it was on stage first, then on two Reboot albums in 2019 and 2024. Those records paired them with younger artists on their old hits, but they held no new songs.
From “I Don’t Know” to a Record in Progress
Back in 2019, Ronnie Dunn sounded unsure that a new album would ever happen. He said they still knew how to write songs and make records, but he was not sure how an act like theirs could get new music heard anymore.
Something changed. In late 2024, Dunn told Holler that an album of original material was in the works. In September 2026, he answered a fan’s comment on social media by saying new music was ready and on the way. Now, on national television, he has described what making it actually looks like.
Kix Brooks pointed to one reason the timing feels right. Music from the 1990s is having a resurgence, he said, and many parents who loved it are passing it on to their kids. Young acts like Zach Top are releasing songs that openly echo the Brooks & Dunn sound, and younger fans are discovering hits that came out before they were born.
A Lifetime Award, and Still Doing the Work
The timing has its own irony. On November 18, the CMA Awards will present Brooks & Dunn with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. They are also the reigning CMA Vocal Duo of the Year, an award they have won 16 times.
Both men are now in their early seventies. They have sold more records than any duo in country music history. And they are still sitting across from each other, trading songs, deciding which ones are good enough, one word at a time.
If Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn could only put one new song on this album, what would you want it to sound like?