Brooks & Dunn Aren’t Sure New Music Will Be Part of Their Reunion
Per a recent interview with Taste of Country's Billy Dukes, Brooks & Dunn's ongoing reunion and the generation gap-obliterating success of recent collaborative album Reboot doesn't mean fans should expect brand-new material anytime soon, if ever.
"We're not a young act trying to get going," Brooks says. "There's a system for that. For us, it's not like we never talk about writing a song — hey, I've got an idea, kicking stuff around like we always have. If we screwed up and wrote some songs, we'd probably record them and put them out."
Dunn echoes his partner's sentiment: "Not to sound cocky, but we can write songs as good as we ever could, I think. It's just going through the political process of what you have to do, like Kix said, to make it happen," he says. "I don't know if we have the gas or the want to to do that. That's called 'work.'"
Brooks & Dunn's uncertainty about whether new music is worth the hassle brings up a harrowing talking point. Even a celebrity the caliber of Reba McEntire has thus far failed to net a radio hit after releasing her best album in years, Stronger Than the Truth. While it's true that as men, Brooks & Dunn have an unfair advantage over McEntire when it comes to the charts, there's also an age bias to consider. Only one number one airplay hit since 1985, Kenny Rogers' "Buy Me a Rose" from 2000, was recorded by an artist over 60-years-old.
Even if Brooks, 64, and Dunn, 66, received the same promotional push as their sonic sons Luke Combs and Jon Pardi and became the oldest hit makers of the modern era, this major victory would be a case of diminishing returns. Neither consumers nor retailers value CDs like they did 25 years ago: a time when every Brooks & Dunn release was all but guaranteed multi-platinum sales.
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