Brooks & Dunn Recall Doing Stage Walkout With Morgan Wallen
Brooks & Dunn stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to share all the details around their second collaboration album Reboot II.
The new project Reboot II was all about the love of music and the creative process for the duo. The purpose of this album and the first one was to remake some of their biggest hits with the help of country music’s biggest stars. On part II, there are collaborations with Lainey Wilson, Marcus King, Morgan Wallen, and Jelly Roll, among many others. The guys shared it’s really a collaboration effort with the artist when they come into the studio, the artist will do their own thing and the guys will give some coaching and input as well. All of the artists took it very seriously, and there was never any “creative differences” between the guys and any of their collaboration partners. Wilson came in with her own idea on how to do “Play Something Country,” when working with Dan Huff (the duo’s producer), they decided to add a little ZZ Top to the sound. King brought in his own band and it changed the entire vibe of “Rock My World (Little Country Girl).” While in the booth doing a guitar solo, Kix walked in and told King to make the guitar riff even longer than the original because he was killing it so much.
With the Jelly Roll collaboration, the emotions were running high. Dan Huff had this whole idea to make this particular collaboration of “Believe” a whole orchestra situation inspired by his father who was an orchestra arranger in Los Angeles. They were able to make it happen so they recorded “Believe” at a big church studio with a 60-piece orchestra and a 15/20-piece choir. When Jelly Roll walked in, he gave them both his infamous Jelly hugs and they all talked for a few minutes, but then Jelly admitted he was nervous and needed to go on the roof to deal with his anxiety for a bit. When he came back in, Ronnie called him being much calmer. The song itself is already an “innate cry button” to Kix, but he added that all three of them were moved by their recording of the song in this particular way. Morgan Wallen was another major collaboration on the record for “Neon Moon.” The trade off for doing the collaboration, Kix and Ronnie had to fly out to Kansas City to do Wallen’s stage walk out with him one night. Ronnie recalled the whole ordeal sharing they met in his dressing room and they were only told to walk fast and given no other direction. He added that when they all got done walking him to the stage, everyone stops, Wallen goes up on stage and then they were just standing there like “now what?” On the first Reboot project, the duo did “Neon Moon” with Kacey Musgraves. They shared it was the biggest success of that first collaboration project.
The duo did an album release party for Reboot II in Nashville, Bobby was able to get Eddie and his mom tickets tot he show and backstage to meet the guys. They both had a really great time, and Eddie raved about how awesome they sounded and the show they put on. Ronnie and Kix both remarked on how the audiences are getting younger and it being a crazy phenomenon. Kix will ask fans to raise their hand if it’s their first concert and often times 1/3 of the crowd is brand new. Once upon a time, Brooks & Dunn opened for Reba McEntire. She was the one who scooped them up early on and they admitted it was really huge for any artist at that time to get on one of 5 big ticketed shows, Reba was one of them.
While in studio, Bobby Bones did Brooks & Dunn trivia with the guys where he admitted his favorite song of theirs is “Neon Moon.” He opened up about singing “Red Dirt Road” in the shower, and he loves jamming to the guitar riff at the beginning of “Hard Workin’ Man” on his drives into work. Bones also recalled his favorite memories with the guys. Naturally his favorite with Ronnie was when he performed “Neon Moon” at Bones and his wife Caitlyn’s wedding. Then he had two favorite memories with Kix, one was when Bones played the Opry for the first time and Kix came into his dressing room to say hello. The other time was in Austin, TX and they were peeing at urinals next to each other.
Brooks & Dunn head out on tour starting March 2025, fans can get tickets to next year’s shows here.