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

There are also fond memories of life on the road, and the friends who helped them on their way to headline status. "The year that ‘Boot Scoot’ went #1, we were on tour with Reba, and [her husband] Narvel actually came back to the dressing room and gave us a raise," Kix recalls. "He said, ‘You guys are hotter than what I’m paying you, and I don’t want this to come back to haunt me.’ And he gave us a raise. When we got off that tour, we were starting to play dates by ourselves here and there, and we were selling out. We didn’t immediately go to major coliseums or amphitheaters, but we did headline a tour in smaller buildings. They all did well, and we stepped up from there."

And step it up they did. Over the years, Brooks & Dunn have become known for their high-energy live shows and innovative tour strategies like the Neon Circus Tour. "We had the idea of making country music shows an experience," says Ronnie. "You’d come and there’d be bikers and there’d be cowboy clowns on stilts and things like that. We were trying to set it up like a rodeo circus kind of vibe."

"Auditioning those guys at that time was hysterical," recalls Kix. "I remember going to the management office one day, and they were all coming in and doing their stuff. There was a fire breather, and he was fixin’ to give our manager Clarence [Spalding] a big old shot of kerosene."

Sadly, all good things do come to an end, and with the release of #1s ?and then some, Brooks & Dunn have announced they are going their separate ways following a 2010 tour, appropriately called "The Last Rodeo." "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," the duo announced on their website. "This ride has been everything and more than we could ever have dreamed."

In trying to analyze their phenomenal success, Kix says, "There’s not an easy answer. It’s a dynamic that neither one of us understands and certainly would never have dreamed that we could have survived this long."

Ultimately what drew them together in the first place and kept them at the top for so long boils down to one thing – the music. "The music has to drive you," says Ronnie. "That’s just it. You follow it. You follow the songs."

For 20 years, Brooks & Dunn have let the music drive them to heights no other country duo has ever reached. They’d be the first to tell you, it’s been one hell of a great ride. Yet even after they take their final bow together, the music will live on, and their place in country music history cemented by those #1s ?and then some.