Ronnie Dunn and Garth Brooks team up on the rollicking country single “Rodeo Man.” The high-energy duet, the most added song the week of its release, is now in the top 40 at country radio. In an interview with American Songwriter at the 2023 BMI Country Awards, Dunn shared how the collaboration came together and explained that you don’t tell Brooks no.
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“I’m doing a cowboy record called Lone Star, which he named actually,” Dunn tells American Songwriter. “I had another name for it. He’s brilliant at that. Anyway, we were going back and forth with songs and he goes, ‘Dude, I want that ‘Rodeo Man’ song. Can I have it?’
“How do you tell Garth no? Well, that was it. He goes, ‘I’ll do it’ but he goes, ‘I think you and I should do this as a duet,’” Dunn explains. “Sure enough, here we go. … Unbeknownst to me, they said it was the most added song in radio.”
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“Rodeo Man” was released by Brooks in partnership with his new label home Big Machine Records, and is available exclusively on Amazon Music. The single is featured on Brooks’ Time Traveler album, released in November and available exclusively at Bass Pro Shops.
Meanwhile, Dunn is hard at work on his forthcoming album expected next year. He promises the next record will be “cowboy songs,” but he quickly explains it’s “not campfire cowboy.”
“We’ve got a little bit of everything on it. Then I might find a hat that fits my head,” he says with a laugh.
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Dunn, one-half of Brooks & Dunn, has amassed 20 No. 1 songs as part of the country duo. The singer/songwriter also shared the importance of writing every day and trying to be positive in his songs.
“Always, if you can, leave a light at the end of the tunnel that keeps us away from people either jumping out of the window or losing hope,” he notes. “Somebody turned to me at the Kentucky Derby last year and she goes, ‘I can’t take country music because it’s so sad.’ It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“Rodeo Man” is available now, exclusively on Amazon Music.
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Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images for ACM
