Ronnie Eugene Dunn said of his parents: “Dad was a hot-tempered, maniac honky-tonker. Brooks wrote the #1 hits “I’m Only in It for the Love” (John Conlee, 1983) and “Modern Day Romance” (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 1985), and Brooks’s song “Sacred Ground”-an unremarkable single from his 1989 self-titled solo album for Capitol Records Nashville-became a hit for McBride & the Ride in 1992. Record producer Don Gant nurtured Brooks’s budding talent, and although Brooks recorded a single for the independent record label Avion, he fared better as a writer.
He left the area for stretches in Alaska and Maine, then moved to Nashville in 1979 with his wife, Barbara, to pursue a country music career. While attending Louisiana Tech University, Brooks appeared regularly on the Louisiana club circuit. His family lived on the same street as Billie Jean Horton, who had been married to both Hank Williams and Johnny Horton, and he gave his first paid performance at age twelve with Horton’s daughter.
Brooks was raised by his father, an oil company engineer, after his mother died when Brooks was three years old. Leon Eric Brooks III earned his nickname, Kix, because of his boisterous behavior in his mother’s womb, but the name later fit his performance style, as he twirled, strutted, and kicked to dramatize Brooks & Dunn’s rocking arrangements. When Arista Records Nashville chief Tim DuBois urged Brooks and Dunn to join forces and become a duo, each brought more than a decade of performing and songwriting experience to the partnership. They also collected dozens of music-industry honors, including two Grammys, nineteen Country Music Association awards, and thirty Academy of Country Music awards. They went on to become the best-selling country duo of all time, earning forty-one Top Ten hits (including twenty #1s) and spending two decades packing concert arenas. Brooks & Dunn’s debut album, Brand New Man, launched the duo toward stardom with four consecutive #1 hits. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are one of the most significant creative pairings in country music history. On the original 45 record, it was paired with another good song: The B-Side was “Cheating on the Blues ” from the pen of D Cook, K.
The album was certified 6 × Multi-Platinum by the RIAA for sales of six million copies. The song was included in the Brooks & Dunn debut album, Brand New Man (Arista 1991), the album was released on August 13, 1991, and reached number # 3 on the USTop Country Albums lists, and the number # 5 on the Canadian RPM Country Albums lists. It was also their first single not to have an accompanying music video. The song became their third consecutive number one on the country charts. On the Canada Country Tracks lists, it reached number # 1 on May 23, 1992, for two weeks in a row. With the production of Scott Hendricks & Don Cook, the single was released on February 24, 1992, on May 9, 1992, it reached number # 1 of the lists of US Hot Country Singles, for two weeks in a row. West, Nashville, TN, on the Brooks & Dunn recording, it was accompanied by, Brent Mason (guitar), Mark Casstevens (guitar and mandolin), Bruc Bouton (steel), Glenn Worf and Mike Chapman (bass), Lonnie Wilson (drums), Rob Hajacos (fiddle), John Barlow Jarvis (piano & keyboards) and Dennis Wilson, Harry Stinson & John Wesley Ryles (vocal back). A song written by Ronnie Dunn, it was recorded by the duo Brooks & Dunn for the Arista label, it was recorded in March 1991, at Tree Studios, 8th Music Sq.