Merle Haggard Helped Get Brooks and Dunn Back Together
Merle Haggard deserves credit for a lot in country music. As arguably a Mount Rushmore artist, singer, songwriter, and performer in country history, it’s hard to fathom what country music would sound like and where it would be if it wasn’t for The Hag. His catalog and legacy loom as large as any, with songs like “Mama Tried,” “Working Man Blues,” and “Okie From Muskogee” creating the very foundations of what we consider “country music” today.
But who knew that late in his career when an aging Merle Haggard was in his swan song, he also played a pivotal role in the legacy of another Country Music Hall of Fame act: Brooks & Dunn. Now granted, not every Merle Haggard fan might be a Brooks & Dunn fan. When they came along in the ’90s, some old-school country fans felt they symbolized the over-commercialization of country. But as for Merle Haggard, he was a huge fan and admirer of the duo.
That is why after Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn announced they were parting ways in 2010 after their “Last Rodeo” tour, Merle Haggard was ticked. And like Merle Haggard had a penchant for doing, he let them know about it. Lo and behold, when Ronnie and Kix finally decided to get back together, Merle Haggard was directly responsible.
In a recent interview with RFD-TV, Kix Brooks reminisced, “[Merle] was a great friend, and he chewed my butt because Ronnie and I stopped in 2010. We really thought we’d gone as far as we could. And he chewed me out then. We’re in Woodstock, NY sold out, and he’s looking out the window and goes, ‘What the hell are y’all doing? Look at all those people out there? Why would you stop playing?'”
Kix Brooks goes on to explain that when the duo was formed, he didn’t even know Ronnie Dunn. They wrote their first two #1 records the week they met. Then it was off to the races for the next 20 years and they had never taken a break, and never slowed down, thinking it could all end the next year, even though it never did.
Then when Kix Brooks was interviewing Merle as the host of American Country Countdown, in the middle of the conversation, Merle stopped down and said, “When are you getting back together with Ronnie?”
Kix Brooks responded, “I don’t know Merle. We’re talking. We’ve been duck hunting quite a few times.”
And Merle responded, “No, when are you two getting back together, and doing your job? … Let me tell you something, you two got a thing. Everybody doesn’t get that opportunity. At the level you guys have gotten to, don’t waste that. You guys have a thing, and you need to get back to work.”
Kix Brooks then took that clip from the interview and sent it to Ronnie Dunn. “Merle’s kind of our living dad,” Kix explains, “And Ronnie posted it immediately. It really put a fire beneath us.”
Brooks & Dunn would reform to open shows for Reba McEntire in Las Vegas in 2015. Subsequently, they have won the CMA’s Vocal Duo of the Year both in 2024 and in 2025. Once again, Merle Haggard was right.
Brooks & Dunn, and their music have definitely been big beneficiaries of the resurgence in interest in ’90s country recently, perhaps even more than someone like Garth Brooks with his inaccessible catalog, or other “Class of ’89” acts like Travis Tritt, if only because their music was so defining of the era.
Though they’ve spent more recent years participating in “Reboot” retrospectives, now feels like the time for them to release a new, original album. Their last original album was 2007’s Cowboy Town. Something tells me that Merle Haggard would agree.
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August 2, 2026 @ 8:18 am
The only time I ever got to see Merle Haggard in concert was the Brooks and Dunn farewell tour in 2010. Merle opened for them at their Blossom tour stop here in Northeast Ohio.
I, like most would love to hear a new original album for B&D. Part of me is afraid I’d be disappointed though.They’re last few records before disbanding really drifted off into a more rock sound than the original B&D sound in the early 90s.
August 2, 2026 @ 4:56 pm
With the 90’s resurgence. It would be in their best interest to release a straight ahead 90’s era album.
August 2, 2026 @ 8:51 am
I am more than ready for a new album. I was a huge Brooks & Dunn fan from 1997 – 2009 seeing them in concert 12x during that span: all three Neon Circus & Wild West Tours, 2x co-headling with Reba, once co-headling with ZZ Top and 6 just regular proper concerts.
That first Neon Circus & Wild West tour was B&D, Toby Keith, Montgomery Gentry, up and coming Keith Urban acoustic and mc’d by Cledus T. Judd.
When we talk about perfect album trifectas like Willie’s Shotgun, Phases & Stages, and Red Headed, I put B&D’s Steers & Stripes, Red Dirt Road, and Hillbilly Deluxe right up there.
I get why they split at the time and we got some really good Ronnie Dunn albums since, but it’s great they are touring again and would be even better to get new music.
August 2, 2026 @ 8:52 am
While I’m not what you’d call a huge Brooks and Dunn fan, they’re meant to be together.
Ronnie Dunn has a great voice but he’s just not meant to be a solo act after his success with Kix. Could Joe Bonsall or Duane Allen have hit solo careers outside of the Oaks? Of course not, and they never tried to do solo projects.
As mixed up as Merle could get with marriages and his career, he could understand why Brooks and Dunn were supposed to be together as an act.
August 2, 2026 @ 10:28 am
But when is new music going to be released by them? Any rumors?
August 2, 2026 @ 11:05 am
D**N,didn’t know that,but thanks much,Merle !!!!!!!!!!!
August 2, 2026 @ 12:24 pm
They should have never broken up in the first place
August 2, 2026 @ 3:16 pm
I love B&D music. I have never had the opportunity to see them live in concert. I’m hoping they come to NEPA one day.
August 2, 2026 @ 5:46 pm
Let’s be honest.
Brooks & Dunn broke up because Ronnie wanted to go solo. Dunn sang the lead on all but maybe 4 or 5 singles that B&D ever released (and usually on at least 7 out of 10 album tracks) and the songs mostly sounded like Ronnie Dunn with a back-up singer. This was not Simon & Garfunkel or the Bellamy Brothers, with soaring harminies. There was a lot of talk that Brooks & Dunn And in the mid 2000s, you’d see articles in various publications calling Dunn “one of the greatest country vocalists of all-time,” or some similar formulation.
Dunn did go solo. His first solo album had one single that went top-5
(It had the word “Red” in the title) and another one that went nowhere. And Ronnie found out that even though he did all the “heavy lifting” in B&D, there was a lot of equity build up in “Brooks & Dunn” that was not transferable to him, personally. He could tour as “Ronnie Dunn” and be booked at 1,2000-seat theaters or go back to touring with Kix show and co-headline with Reba McEntire and be booked at A-list Vegas casinos and at arenas. Being the star of “Brooks & Dunn,” (even if his name was listed second) suddenly seemed like a good thing again.
August 2, 2026 @ 6:11 pm
Hey luckyoldsun,
Some of my favorite songs of theirs were sung by Kix Brooks.
August 3, 2026 @ 5:13 am
One of my favorites that Kix sang was ‘Go West’
August 3, 2026 @ 7:16 am
My favorite Brooks and Dunn songs were the ballads that sounded like Ronnie solo. “Getting Better All The Time,” “A Man This Lonely,” you know the type. His solo albums had quite a few similar songs — check out “Heart Letting Go” (a Chris Stapleton/Al Anderson collaboration) sometime — but radio lost interest in him, for some reason that only radio insiders apparently understand.
August 3, 2026 @ 1:12 pm
The same thing happened when Alabama “retired” in 2003 and Randy Owen started touring under his own name. After seeing him play at BamaJam (a festival with its own rabbit hole of Alabama politics and bribery), it became clear that Alabama was 90% Randy Owen. Please note that I’m not discounting Teddy, Jeff, and Mark’s instrumental contributions to the band, but vocally, Randy is the heart of Alabama. However, people didn’t want to see just Randy Owen, so their “un-retirement” in 2013 seemed inevitable.
August 2, 2026 @ 9:21 pm
I feel like all of the hit 90s artist that are now semi retired or setting back in the shadows need to start putting new music back out or country music is gonna be stuck with this crap that we have today. It’s a handful of artist that still sing real country music but not many
August 3, 2026 @ 4:38 am
The problem is that the older artists jump on whatever the popular trend is, often with embarrassing results. They risk looking out of touch. This can feel awkward or insincere to fans.
As for B&D; I really like the debut, but it went downhill with every new release thereafter. Ronnie tend to oversing, so it sounds more like the powerpop he obviously love, Kix doesn’t really do much at all, unless it’s the abuse of his guitar onstage and in the videos.
Ronnie is probably the best vocalist country music got in the 90’s, but Kix got this sincerity and twang in his voice. On the first album, both of them delivered future evergreens.
August 2, 2026 @ 10:06 pm
Poor Merle, it isn’t right to blame him for that, now that he’s dead and no longer able to defend himself.
August 2, 2026 @ 11:46 pm
They came to the UK this year, buoyed by those CMA Awards. Ronnie Dunn was visibly amazed, because they weren’t able to come over in their heyday.
We’re due to get Shelton and, with luck, Chesney in the next few years. We had Luke Combs play three nights at Wembley this weekend too.
August 3, 2026 @ 12:10 am
Thank you Merle. I have been a fan from the start and was surprised when they announced their ‘retirement’. I saw them last year and they were good although Ronnie seemed to be struggling at times during the performance, which was shorter than I expected. They are a great duo and it would be good to hear new music from them.
August 3, 2026 @ 4:39 am
I interviewed both of them right after their first album came out and they told me that they were introduced by an executive at Arista Records. Kix had been writing songs and released a couple of solo albums but never really clicked as a solo artist. Ronnie had already written Boot Scootin’ Boogie and it had been cut by Asleep at the Wheel but it wasn’t a hit, which was obviously a blessing in disguise.
August 3, 2026 @ 7:24 am
That executive was Tim DuBois, a country songwriter of high quality (and an accountant who’d worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Texas and the Arthur Andersen firm) who became head of Arista Nashville. If every label’s Nashville division had a chief honcho like DuBois, the mainstream side of the genre would be in much better shape today.
August 3, 2026 @ 9:27 am
Yeah, I remembered that after I wrote the post. I used to see Tim at industry events when I was editing a country music magazine back in the 90s. He definitely had an ear.
August 3, 2026 @ 9:41 am
I was probably reading that magazine back then, when I was a copy editor at a Connecticut newspaper doing country album and concert review as a sideline. I must have picked up at least five mags a month back then. The early years of that decade were such an exciting time for country music. Wish it could have lasted, but then Billy Ray and Shania and Taylor came along …
August 3, 2026 @ 10:34 am
We were around 1992-95, when Country Weekly came along and pretty much knocked off all the competition. It was definitely a fascinating time to be writing about country music because new artists were coming in constantly while many of the legends were still around. I could be going to a listening party for a brand new artist one night, catching Alan Jackson at the Anaheim Pond the next and the Highwaymen at the Universal Amphitheatre that weekend.
August 3, 2026 @ 1:18 pm
This is such a cool thread to follow. Looking at the Top 40 country charts from the late ’80s and early ’90s, it’s remarkable how many names had high-charting hits but are completely unknown today. It feels like a treasure trove of that era’s music has faded into obscurity, but I guess that’s just the nature of the industry.
August 3, 2026 @ 7:15 am
Brooks and Dunn are GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(Ronnie was 73 June 1;he’s five weeks older than I !!!!!)
August 4, 2026 @ 5:09 am
Easy to forget (I did) Ronnie was already 38 years old when Brand New Man song/album took us all by storm in 1991. Compared to the “Class of 89” where most weren’t even 30 yet. Very few have that kind of success at that age and then sustain it for the next 35 years. Alan Jackson was 31 when Here in The Real World came out.
August 3, 2026 @ 4:20 pm
I love me some haggard .but probably due to promoters offering large offerings of money rather than Merle.
August 4, 2026 @ 4:37 am
I was definitely a B&D fan but if the 2, Kix was my favorite. Ronnie Dunn was a little too whiney for me but together they were great!!!
August 5, 2026 @ 12:57 pm
How about the Merle archive?
Release the music!
August 6, 2026 @ 5:21 pm
Ronnie Dunn had/has one of the great voices ever in country music, up there with Keith Whitley, imo. If Kix gives him the setting he needs to get it out there, fine with me. I also feel the same way about B&D that I feel about the Rolling Stones: They’ve given us plenty, they owe us nothing.