Brooks & Dunn remember the first two ACM Awards they won in 1992, when they snagged both top new duo of the year and duo of the year.
“It felt like we were in the game,” said Kix Brooks. “Those were our first major awards.”
“I remember we were walking the off the stage, I was looking this way, and [Kix] was looking that way, and we were both fighting back tears,” Ronnie Dunn added.
Twenty-five ACM awards later, including winning the coveted entertainer of the year three times, the acclaimed duo received another award Wednesday night (May 7): the ACM Diamond Chairman’s Award. The honor, presented at the ACM Lifting Lives Gala at the Omni PGA Hotel in Frisco, Texas, goes to an artist who has left a mark on the academy and on the country music industry as a whole through their artistry and humanitarian efforts.
The evening, held the night before the 60th ACM Awards, raised more than $1.3 million for ACM Lifting Lives, the philanthropic arm of the academy, which provides aid to people in need through health-related initiatives, including national music therapy programs, mental and physical health organizations, children’s hospitals and more.
The pair, talking to Billboard at the start of the evening, were more than happy to lend their name to raise money for a good cause. “If we can find something that somebody can attach anything that’s worthwhile and good for something, then we’re good to go,” Dunn says.
They were feted by a number of artists who had grown up on their music and many of whom had developed deep personal ties with the most successful duo in the history of country music.
Keith Urban remember shortly after moving to America from Australia hearing the duo’s music, when songs like “Brand New Man” and “Hard Workin’ Man” “were just leaping out of the radio with so much energy,” Urban told Billboard. “They weren’t just great songs, they were great records.”
Urban, who performing a smoking version of “Brand New Man,” first met Brooks when Urban and his then band, The Ranch, were playing in a dive bar called Jack’s Guitar Bar that held around 80 people, “with wretched shag carpet everywhere that was beer soaked and just dreadful.” Brooks had heard of the band and after a formal event one evening came into the bar with his wife. “Kix is dressed to the nines and so is Barbara in this absolute sh-thole pub,” he says with a laugh. After finding the last seat for his wife, Brooks sat on the carpet in his tuxedo “and watched our whole set.” Even though The Ranch didn’t have a record deal, Brooks extended an offer to have the band open for Brooks & Dunn, which they did in 1997.
Similarly, Brooks & Dunn took Megan Moroney, who performed a sultry version of “Ain’t Nothin ‘Bout You,” out on her first arena tour in 2023. “They kind of took me under their wing. I would come out and sing ‘Cowgirls Don’t Cry’ with them every night, and I remember being really nervous to do that. Their confidence kind of [rubbed] off on me a little bit, and made me feel more comfortable,” she says. “I thought that that was really sweet of them to take a chance on me and let me open up for them. It was like a dream come true for me and my parents, so anytime I’m asked to do anything for Brooks and Dunn, I’m there.”
After growing up on Brooks & Dunn’s music, Cody Johnson first met them when he performed “Red Dirt Road” with the duo on 2019’s Reboot collection, which reimagined some of the pair’s greatest hits with other artists. The first line of the song, “I was raised off of Rural Route 3,” always resonated with Johnson because he actually was raised off a Rural Route 3 in Texas, just as Dunn was in Arkansas. “We just hit it off. I think that they figured out that they were my heroes, but also, I didn’t treat them any different,” he said. “And even though I was a young aspiring artist, they didn’t treat me any different either.” Johnson performed “Red Dirt Road” to open the gala’s entertainment portion and will perform the song with the duo on the ACM Awards on Thursday.
Lainey Wilson electrified the crowd with a soaring version of “My Maria,” and called the duo on stage with her to sing the last half of the song. “I was not expecting you to get up here with me,” Wilson said with a laugh after they finished the song to great applause.
“They truly are the soundtrack of my childhood,” she said backstage. “We used to steal my daddy’s hunting spotlight, and we’d turn all the lights out in the house, and my sister would follow me around the living room with [my singing into] a hairbrush. ‘My Maria’ was one of the ones that I would belt out. It is pretty wild to think that I actually really know them now.” As Dunn once again proved as he hit “My Maria’s” sky-high notes, “he is one of the best singers on the face of the earth,” Wilson said. “It’s like how is this even coming out of [his mouth?]”
Also performing in honor of the duo were Zach Top, who played “My Next Broken Heart” and Eric Church, who sang “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone.”
The evening closed with a singalong on “Play Something Country” with Brooks & Dunn, Church, Wilson, Urban, Top and Moroney.
Brooks & Dunn, who released Reboot 2 in 2024, are inching toward recording an album of new material, which would be their first since 2007’s Cowboy Town. “We’re kicking along,” Brooks says. “We’re working on it, we’re pushing that row,” Dunn says, adding that their new label chiefs at Sony Nashville—chairman/CEO Hilary Lindsey and president/COO Ken Robold—are also encouraging them to progress. “We’ve got a label that we had a really great meeting with. They can’t make us make a record, but they would love to see us do it,” Brooks says. “They don’t want to put out a record that’s not a great record.”
The pair also acknowledge they are among the top tier league of acts who have been so successful that they are competing with their own legacy.
“He’s not a country artist, but I love quoting Billy Joel,” Brooks says, “He said ‘I haven’t made a new record in [32] years and it’s working quite well.’”
But they admit there’s the nagging feeling that they have more left to say. “I still think we have the juice to be able to sell a new one,” Dunn says. “I just want to put one more through the goal posts.”
