Remember When Brooks & Dunn Played Their ‘Final’ Show?
Brooks & Dunn played what they billed as the final show of their career together on Sept. 2, 2010, in Nashville — but it didn't quite work out that way.
The superstar duo were at the height of their career when they announced their decision to split on Aug. 10 of 2009, shocking fans and the music business by saying, "After 20 years of making music and riding this trail together, we have agreed as a duo that it’s time to call it a day."
Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks announced a final tour appropriately billed as the Last Rodeo, feeling they owed their fans one final chance to see them together. They represented their split as amicable, but in subsequent interviews, they admitted that things between them were so tense at one point in the late 1990s that they recorded songs for an album in different studios and with different producers.
The Last Rodeo Tour was a huge success, and Brooks & Dunn closed out their touring career together with a final stop at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena in September of 2010. Reba McEntire joined them onstage to sing "Cowgirls Don't Cry" at the gig, and they performed "Brand New Man" as the final song of the night, capping off by donating the proceeds to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Why Brooks & Dunn May Not Ever Record New Music Again:
The two men went their separate ways into different endeavors that saw Dunn focusing on three solo albums, while Brooks released a solo album, hosted a hugely popular radio show and worked extensively in film.
But it turned out that Brooks & Dunn hadn't actually reached the end of the road. The duo reunited in 2015 for a Las Vegas residency with McEntire billed as Reba, Brooks & Dunn: Together in Vegas, which has been so successful that it was extended through 2021. Brooks also appeared on “Damn Drunk,” a single from Dunn’s Tattooed Heart album.
Those mini-reunions touched off widespread speculation that Brooks & Dunn might record a new album and tour together again. The duo released an album titled Reboot in 2019, featuring their re-recordings of Brooks & Dunn classics with younger country artists including Luke Combs, Kacey Musgraves and Cody Johnson. In January 2020, they announced plans to reunite for a tour around the project, the 2020 Reboot Tour. That tour was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and launched that September.
Here Are the Best 90s Country Songs, Including Brooks & Dunn: