Brooks & Dunn Reveal How Luke Combs and Kacey Musgraves Inspired Them to Record ‘Reboot’ and ‘Reboot II’

Brooks & Dunn released their first Reboot album in 2019. The project saw current artists like Luke Combs, Jon Pardi, Kacey Musgraves, Ashley McBryde, and many more reimagining some of the duo’s biggest hits. Last year, they released Reboot II which featured a wider variety of guest artists.

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Recently, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn appeared on Audacy’s Rob + Holly to talk about their latest collaborative project. During the discussion, they revealed how a pair of modern hitmakers inspired them to make the first Reboot album.

[RELATED: Kix Brooks Reflects on Recording Classic Brooks & Dunn Songs with Halestorm, The Cadillac Three, and More on ‘Reboot II’]

Brooks & Dunn Reveal the Inspiration Behind Reboot

“I give Luke Combs and Kacey Musgraves kudos for kind of getting this stirred up a little bit,” Kix Brooks said. Brooks & Dunn saw both artists doing covers of their classic songs. Not only did Combs and Musgraves inspire the duo to create the collaborative projects but they also inspired the direction in which each album would go.

“Luke was doing ‘Brand New Man’ at his show and he just wanted to do it like we did it,” Brooks said. “He liked the song and liked playing it like we did,” he added. Reboot followed this blueprint. The current country stars stepped into the studio to do straightforward covers of the duo’s classics.

“Kacey, she took real liberties with ‘Neon Moon’ obviously doin’ her crazy thing on that which we thought was really cool too,” Brooks added. “That was probably the primary catalyst for doing what we did with Reboot II—is what Kacey Musgraves did with ‘Neon Moon’,” Ronnie Dunn said.

The duo had only one rule for artists on their most recent album—“No rules.” At the same time, they opened the project to a wider variety of artists including the rock band Halestorm.

“With huge departures, you do have to step back and scratch your head a little like, ‘Okay, how do we participate, how do we honor their vision too?’” Brooks said of recording Reboot II. “Lizzy Hale and her brother have been headbangin’ with their band for 20 years. It’s not like they don’t know what they’re doin’. They’re a really good freakin’ rock band,” he added.

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