Country music fans recently watched Country Music Hall of Famers Brooks & Dunn win their 17th Academy of Country Music Award for Duo of the Year. The stat means they’re the most successful country duo in the Academy of Country Music’s history. The win surprised many as it was the duo’s first trophy at the ACM Awards in 15 years.
However, for better or worse, country music has seen its fair share of more shocking duets.
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Here are five of country music’s most unexpected collaborations:
Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake
Just call it the career-making duet heard around the world? Maybe not. But at the very least, the collaboration launched Chris Stapleton’s solo career into orbit.
A decade ago, Stapleton and Timberlake teamed for a mash-up of Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” and Timberlake’s “Say Something” at the 2015 CMA Awards. And while CMA execs knew the collab would be a moment, no one could have predicted the impact on the genre as a whole. Did that one performance kill bro-country? Some think so, although the shallow trend was already on the way out. It undoubtedly looped Timberlake into the Nashville-area life for a while and catapulted Stapleton into country music history books as one of the best vocalists of all time.
Sugarland and Beyoncé
While Beyoncé shocked many country music watchers with her Grammy-winning country album last year, those in the know weren’t surprised at all.
Beyoncé and Sugarland collaborated on her song “Irreplaceable” at the 2007 American Music Awards. Sugarland sang the first verse, and Beyoncé joined them for the second.
While Beyonce topped the pop chart for 10 weeks with Irreplaceable, Ne-Yo said he wrote the song hoping for a country hit with Faith Hill or Shania Twain. When neither singer recorded it, Beyoncé took it and made it her own. Sugarland started covering it at their shows, and the artists sang it together at the AMAs.
Sugarland’s Kristian Bush said Beyoncé wanted to go into country music then.
“Real artists hate the idea of genre anyway,” Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles said. “It’s a manufactured thing for marketing. She wants to sing what she wants to sing. We want to sing what we want to sing. Everybody wants to write and sing what we want to write and sing and expand, so let her! Let her live!”
Brooks & Dunn and Halestorm
Brooks & Dunn released their collaborations Reboot II project last year, and much of it was filled with creative duets with in-genre artists including Megan Moroney, Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen, and Lainey Wilson. However, the “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” remake with Halestorm took the honkytonk classic and turned it into a hard rock rager.
“(The drummer) kicks it off with that lick,” Ronnie Dunn said. “No kidding, everybody in the control room, you just felt the energy explode.”
The sound engineer jumped up and started twisting knobs to adjust the volume. Brooks says Dann Huff, the iconic producer and guitarist overseeing the project, looked at him over the soundboard and told him the band was “really good.”
“They drove the hell out of it,” Kix Brooks said. “I’m just thinking, ‘This is going to be fun to watch Ronnie jump in the middle of this.’ And he totally did. When the tracks came over to me to do some backgrounds on it, I’m like, ‘Hell yeah.’”
Taylor Swift and T-Pain
Before her ground-breaking worldwide Eras Tour, her Super Bowl boyfriend and total music domination, Taylor Swift was a teenager living in Nashville baking cookies and making country music. She also wasn’t afraid to laugh to herself.
In 2009, Swift teamed with T-Pain for a parody on her hit “Love Story,” which they called “Thug Story.” Then they did a whole video bit for the CMT Music Awards.
Swift rapped: “No, I ain’t got a gun, never really been in a club, still live with my parents, but I’m still a thug.”
And she did it wearing thick necklaces and a flat-brimmed cap.
Carrie Underwood and Steven Tyler
We know that Carrie Underwood is a huge ‘80s rock fan, but 13 years ago, when she dueted with Steven Tyler on the ACM Awards, she was still America’s Sweetheart.
Underwood kicked off her hit “Undo It,” and then the Aerosmith singer strutted out and took over her song. It’s pretty uncommon for rockers to learn country lyrics, but Tyler knocked it out. Then the pair switched, and Underwood joined Tyler for a high-octane version of “Walk This Way.”
These days, Underwood and Guns N Roses’ Axl Rose are semi-frequent singing partners – and Tyler has released a country-influenced album. But then, the collab was jaw-dropping.
(Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
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