Q&A;: Kix Brooks : ‘It’s Fallen Into Place Real Natural’ for Country Duo

As half of the record-breaking country duo Brooks & Dunn, Kix Brooks has many blessings to count. The 39-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist spent years laboring in the obscurity of beer-soaked honky-tonks, only to find himself the toast of the country music world at an age where many less successful artists find themselves choking on the dust of unrealized dreams.

As it turns out, that’s exactly what Brooks was experiencing not so long before Brooks & Dunn hit triple platinum with their 1991 debut album, “Brand New Man” album.

Although he was a successful songwriter who had penned hits for such artists as John Conlee and the Dirt Band, Brooks was feeling like his aspirations to stardom in his own right were passing him by.

“Brand New Man” changed all that. The album, which included the No. 1 hit “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” was the biggest-selling debut ever for a country group or duo.

It was followed last year with the double platinum “Hard Workin’ Man.” Their new “Waiting On Sundown” album debuted last week at No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart.

All told, Brooks & Dunn have logged seven No. 1 country singles, a Grammy Award and roomful of others from the Country Music Assn., the Academy of Country Music, the Nashville Network and Playboy magazine, among others--all in a career that’s just three years old.

Touring in support of their new album, Brooks and partner Ronnie Dunn, 41, play tonight at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

Brooks spoke about the new album and the tour by phone from his home in Nashville.

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Q: You’ve got a reputation as the rowdy half of Brooks & Dunn.

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A: Oh, no. Totally untrue (laughs). I just keep my foot in my mouth all the time.

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Q: You followed in the footsteps of Johnny Horton to some degree early in your career?

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A: Well, I grew up real close to him, near his family and stuff. He was one of my first real influences. “The Battle of New Orleans” and “Sink the Bismark” were the songs I really learned to play guitar on. I think (Horton) and Hank (Williams) Sr., when I was young, those are the guys I learned how to play from. . . . Then when I was about 13, all the rock stuff started influencing me as well. My first bands were schizophrenic. We played everything from “Hey Good Lookin’ ” to “Gloria.”

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Q: Before hitting it big with Brooks & Dunn, you were a successful songwriter. How did you hook into that?

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A: I got sent to military school when I was 15, and my roommate, Jody Williams, ended up working for Charlie Daniels’ publishing company. So I was on my way to New Orleans passing through Nashville, and I gave him a call.

He told me all about the publishing business, and it all sounded real cool, and I played him some of my songs and he said, “Man, you need to be here, writing.” I just didn’t think that much of it. I went down to New Orleans and beat myself up in the bars for a while, and started thinking, “Well, maybe writing songs isn’t such as bad idea after all.” (He laughs.)

I think if you play enough bars, you either play bars for the rest of your life, or you start thinking about your future. Getting a hundred bucks at the end of the night isn’t going to make for much of a retirement. It’s really weird, because I came to town to be an artist, and to sing and everything, and when that didn’t happen . . . much to my surprise, I couldn’t believe people didn’t just hand me record contracts.

When that didn’t happen and I was writing songs to make a living, I looked at all the guys driving big cars, and they were all hit songwriters. I thought it was real cool, all these country boys socking this money away. . . . So I dug into (songwriting) and for about 10 years, that’s what I did. And whenever this all ends, I’m sure that’s what I’ll go back to doing.

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Q: Now that you’re one of the biggest things in country music these days, how do you feel when you look back on the hard times?

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A: It seemed like everybody I knew eventually ended up hitting a lick except me. I can remember lying in bed at night, going, “Well, I guess it’s just not gonna happen for me.” I convinced myself I’d have to be content as a songwriter, and let the other dream go. And yeah, it’s weird. One day, it just kind of all came together and took off.

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Q: Is success everything you expected it would be?

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A: Yeah (He laughs again.) It is. The coolest thing for me is to be able to afford to do any kind of show I want to do. That’s the biggest thing for me. As far as lights and stage and the people that are working with me, it’s all the best stuff. To be able to go out there on a level of grandeur that I always dreamed about. I was a security guard for three years, and I went to every rock show and country show that came to Nashville. I took it all in and went, “God I know it’ll never happen, but wouldn’t it be cool to do all that stuff and put in a show like that!”

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Q: Tim DuBois, head of Arista Records’ Nashville division, hooked you up with Ronnie Dunn. How did that come about?

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A: Ronnie and I were both pitching solo deals at Tim. I’d had a solo deal at Capitol, and after I went through the rat race of being on a major label with a lot of acts, I wasn’t interested in doing that again. But I knew there would be a commitment there if I could just get on his label, that they’d be behind me.

He said, “I’ve got this guy, man, your songs and his songs really jibe together. I want you to meet this guy.” I said, “Fine, whatever.” I still wanted to work my deal. Anyway, I got together with Ronnie, we wrote a few good songs and pitched them back at Tim.

He said, “Look guys. I’m gonna offer you a deal, but I’m not gonna offer you the deal you want. I want both of you, and I want you together. I think this is an act. You’ll be a smash if you do this. I don’t really hear either one of you by yourselves, but for some reason, I think together this deal could fly.”

Well, Ronnie and I were both thinking this isn’t what we really want to do, but it’s the only deal on the table. Who knows, something might come out of it. At the very least, we might write some hit songs together. It’s uncanny how it’s all fallen into place.

People give us a hard time for making a contrived deal or a record person putting us together or whatever, but the point is, it works. It’s fallen into place real natural. We’ve never had a fight or anything like that. The funniest thing was when we started performing. We sit down after a couple of shows, and Ronnie goes, “Man--you’re crazy. You really need to settle down out there.”

And I’m like, “Man--you’re standing out there like a stiff. Why don’t you do something? Where I come from, we raise hell and jump out on the tables and kick beer all over and all that stuff. That’s where I come from, that’s how I’ve always performed. I’m not gonna change now.” And Ronnie said, “I’m not either.”

So it was like, “Well, let’s just see what happens.” We’d both been doing our own deals for 20 years. We’re both hard-headed enough that we kept doing what we were doing, and for some weird reason, it works.

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Q: Are your personalities as different as your stage demeanors?

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A: Ronnie shoots from the hip. He’s much more likely, on the business end of things, to just say what he’s thinking. I’m more likely to ponder things. . . . That seems to work in its own way, too. But we’re not that much different. Our backgrounds are similar. Our dads are both pipeliners, we come from pretty matter-of-fact, redneck backgrounds. We can communicate.

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Q: With all the success you’ve had, is there ever a sense of “Where do I go from here?”

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A: Well, you always want to try and progress. At the same time, we’re really not going to change what we do. I think show-wise, you always want to try to bring something different to the table. Our show for next year is gonna be different than the show was this year.

As far as trying to top yourself, I think that’s just asking for frustration. We just want to maintain, you know? Keep doing what we’re doing. The way I’ve always looked at music is you just write the best songs you can, and put on the best show you can.

* Brooks & Dunn, Clay Walker and Martin McBride play tonight at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. 8 p.m. $25-$37.50. (714) 740-2000 (Ticketmaster).