Brooks & Dunn Are Headed Back Out on the Road. But That’s Not All They’re Focused On: ‘We’re Songwriters’ (Exclusive)

Brooks & Dunn had one heck of a 2024.

Not only did the best-selling country duo of all time find themselves riding another wave of resurgence fueled by their somewhat surprise win for vocal duo of the year at the CMA Awards in November, but also found the music of their past being celebrated once again courtesy of their album REBOOT II.

“We had no plans of doing it again,” Brooks & Dunn’s Kix Brooks, 69, told PEOPLE of the initial conversations surrounding a follow-up to their ultra-successful 2019 album REBOOT, which included collaborations with artists such as Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett and Cody Johnson. “We just figured, ‘that was cool and that was successful and that was good and I’m glad it worked,’ but that was about it.”

But eventually, talk of a follow-up to REBOOT reignited, especially considering the success of revamped album cuts such as “Neon Moon,” a crazy-popular collaboration with Kacey Musgraves. And while REBOOT certainly brought out the best of the artists found on it, Brooks & Dunn say they were ready to take things even further on REBOOT II, which was released last fall.

“This time, we got in the studio and turned them loose,” remembered Brooks & Dunn’s Ronnie Dunn, 71, in an interview with PEOPLE about the open creative direction that awaited the artists featured on their latest album. “You pick your song, you take the approach, and we’ll go with you wherever you want to go. No rules.”

This no-guardrails attitude took the pressure off everyone involved, a pressure that the legendary duo put in their rear view mirror a long time ago. “We’re not worried about radio rules or whatever,” says Dunn. “If they wanted to have a guitar player play for 16 or 32 bars, let’s go.”

In fact, the award-winning country duo encouraged the artists to bring their own bands to the table, following in the footsteps to what Musgraves had done previously on REBOOT’s version of “Neon Moon.”

“Our producer [Dann Huff] had a great studio band put together for us if that’s what the act wanted to do, but basically, if they didn’t want to do that and they had a band they loved, they brought them in there,” explains Brooks.

And so, they did just that. Marcus King brought in his own band for “Rock My World (Little Country Girl)” and Jelly Roll literally packed the studio bringing in a 70-piece orchestra and a 30-person choir for “Believe.” “It was like a seminar of unchained creativity,” says Brooks of the album recorded over the course of a year. 

In many ways, Brooks & Dunn admit that they were just along for the ride. “We just had to hang on and jump in and come prepared for anything,” remembers Dunn. 

But even they weren’t prepared to hear what came out of Megan Moroney on “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You.” “[Megan] was out touring with us for two years I think, and we never heard that voice come out of her — that sultry, sexy voice,” says Brooks. “It felt like she’d been up on a three-day bender smoking Camel cigarettes. They’d already kind of had that idea and sort of had all that worked up.”

And as much as Brooks & Dunn respected an artist who turned the song on its head, so did they respect when artists stuck pretty much to the original – such as Morgan Wallen’s version of “Neon Moon.”

“He said he didn’t want mess with it,” says Brooks. “I guess in his opinion, it was already done.”

And while the country duo gets set to kick off their Neon Moon Tour on March 13 in Lubbock, Texas with opener David Lee Murphy, Dunn and Brooks both agree that there are some other things on their mind for 2025.

“We have to stop and remind ourselves that we’re songwriters and we need to play with that a little bit,” Dunn concludes. “So, we’re going back and forth with some other stuff.”