Brooks & Dunn's Kix Brooks, photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Both brought considerable writing chops to the table. Kix was a Shreveport, Louisiana native, who had already spent nearly a decade in Nashville and was a successful songwriter with cuts by John Conlee, Highway 101, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He also had a solo album under his belt on Capitol Records. Ronnie was born in Coleman, Texas but had migrated to Tulsa after college and become one of the hottest artists on the competitive Oklahoma club scene, winning the Marlboro Talent Competition and starting to turn heads in Nashville with original songs such as "Neon Moon" and "Boot Scootin’ Boogie."

They both knew what audiences would respond to and knew what was already being served to the masses. They had a burning desire to offer something different, and they knew how to deliver. "One thing that’s made me smile over the years is people talking about hearing that record for the first time, and talking about the sound of it and how progressive it was," Kix says of their debut.

Brand New Man was named Album of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in 1992. "Our world really changed then. I remember distinctly," says Kix. "That award show was the same week that ‘Neon Moon’ went number one."

"It shows you how important award shows are for new acts especially," adds Ronnie. "Suddenly people recognize you and put a face with the song. As soon as those award shows were over, we were on the bus. We’d be gone for 150 or more dates. So a lot of it is a blur."

Those early days were a hazy mélange of headlights, spotlights, #1 parties and lonely miles on the road. Yet sweet memories somehow rise above the roar of the bus engines and screams of the fans. Kicking back, the duo reminisce on the images evoked by the music on #1s ?and then some.

There was the night they discovered "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)," penned by Bill LaBounty and Steve O’Brien. "I remember getting that in an envelope and listening to it and going, ‘This is fun,’" says Kix.

Adds Ronnie, "I remember you playing it for me in a hotel and going, ‘What do you think?’ And [I said] ‘that’s our audience right now.’ So we went for it. We heard the song and the line went by, ‘She acts like Madonna but she listens to Merle.’ We looked at each other and said, ‘Turn the tape off – we’re cutting it!’"

They recall recording "She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind" for their third album, Waitin’ on Sundown. "It was towards the end of the session, we were almost through with the CD and I had played a little bit of it for [producer] Don Cook," Ronnie says. "I remember him having an acoustic guitar and he said, ‘Play that song you were playing yesterday, play that "Cheatin’ Kind"’ and everybody sat down, as we do in Nashville, and scribbled out a chart. Brent Mason was a big part of those records back then. He came up with some brilliant, great guitar riffs just out of the blue. I remember we’d sit down and Lonnie on drums would hit it to run through it. All of a sudden here would come that lick from Brent. He did that on a lot of stuff. It brought those tracks to life."

Kix remembers the first time he heard "Believe," which was written by Ronnie and Craig Wiseman. "He had a work tape, singing with a guitar, and the first time I heard that song, it just killed me," Kix says. "It’s a spiritual song and that’s what moves people, but there’s such a difference in songs that are about religion and songs about God. It’s such delicate territory because you’re on real sacred ground, and to be able to write a song that sets right there in the pocket that people can just grab a hold of and it gives them some peace and inspires them, it’s real special to land on one like that."