The Good Times with Brooks & Dunn

in our close friendship with the second we walk off stage you forget we exist what are your names again. Well welcome back to living and learning i'm reba mac and tired this episode is gonna be really fun because i go way back with these two i could even say i've been living and learning with them for almost 30 years of friendship right now we've toured together we've recorded music together we've gone on vacations together and shared milestones in life kicks and runny are just a pair of great guys that i'm thrilled to have here with me today but you know them as brooks and done country Hall of Famers in the best selling country duo of all time with 41 top 10 hits as well as two Grammys 19 COMA awards and 25 ACM awards welcome to the show my good pal's kicks brooks and runny done hey guys hey reba y'all sound so excited to be here we're so tired of where have you been anyway does she answer your text anymore runny yeah in a day or two and it's a line if i fact you if i fact you would you write me something back you're busy we get it i'm not as busy as y'all are out there on the golf course and out taking pictures all the time runny are you still taking a lot of pictures or have you stopped that no i'm stopped i'm still still doing it what's the last one you took oh let's say i went to a place and shot of elk of all thing i have to say i can't say shot i had to say photograph photographs some elk a few weeks back good so tell me how was y'all's tour i'm dying to know all about it how was it how was it runny i'd like to hear your perspective this all right oh you didn't say that so runny runny had a big time he is fired up that's what i was hoping for now it's because i'm using both ears now it's just like every night i go out there and just just strip my throat and then spend the whole next day you know going through therapy with doctor feel or somebody and uh uh it just it changed the world really did okay i've been a blast i got a no more about that so how many weekends did y'all tour well we did 20 20 dates but it was completely through september through the and i think the night of october but we just we blitzed them yeah 16 16 i think we went up with 16 shows something like that yeah it was fun outdoor venues same sheds we played forever you know it's it's weird after it's probably been well since 2010 since we did our last tour where we really hit the sheds um and man it's god talk about groundhog day yeah 10 years and you roll off the bus and you go yeah i remember this when i grabbed my bicycle you know i get outside the gate and go oh yeah i remember this when i busted my ass right there and then did it again and it's the but right now you don't think it's different right now and you all know this is it's got colleague cats out of the cage syndrome the the crowds and the people their enthusiasm is over the top i mean they've been missing us that's good yeah well yeah they've been cooped up for so long cakes i was telling i was telling Ronnie that i haven't done a concert since March 2020 wow so were y'all nervous getting back out in front of them no we don't know that much century but you've known as long he known as long enough to know we have every reason to be nervous Rex and we're just not smart enough good no it was really fun it's just fun we had Travis tread opening up for us along with LV Shane you know who just had his first number one record congrats to LV oh good god yeah yeah so yeah so that was fun but we did actually work a few of our arrangements up that we you know touched up and did a few things a little different with some of our songs so that was kind of fun good good good good what do you call your tour reboot reboot love it that's very clever part high-tech part kind of down to the dirt boots yeah so you're going to go back out next a May June it's just kind of what the rumor is at this point that that's the beginning and we'll see where it goes from there we got to refresh everybody's memory that we've been hanging out touring since the early 90s i'm saying 94 95 97 98 is that sound good to y'all it sounds good yeah those i think that was our headline and i know 97 was i was thinking 96 97 was our headline and tours to get not 96 because at the end of 96 i broke my leg right and we went back 97 and i was hobbling around you were still on seven and eight you were lamping around but you still got it done but everybody was just going why she lampin like that and i knew because she skis as well as i do well yes exactly what i exactly what i'm trying to say but it was a skiing accident if i remember they and then you had a cartilage issue where they took out a piece of scar tissue out of your leg or something like that the out of my kneecap out of your kneecap thing elrod said i had bar a soap worth of scar tissue in my knee out like a little holiday ambore a soap i remember you said i hope so yeah because i broke it about the sixth i think six the december and the middle of january had to go back for the second surgery yeah runnier you and aspen no i just got back last time you did did you ski no are you gonna ever ski again no no no i went last time i tried with Santa five a few years ago and uh my daughter hailey's boyfriend skied by me backwards i figured okay we're done we're through it's a young man's game do you ski your kicks uh i used to same as ronnie the last time i busted my ass on a ski slope was the last time i busted my ass on a ski slope yeah yeah and i got up and like ronnie described you know people coming by throwing gloves at you and stuff you know from your the carnage that you leave for a couple hundred feet when you fall they weren't they weren't man polite they're like get your crap out of the way we're trying to ski here for hillbilly singers and i'm from Louisiana you know we i didn't even see eyes till i got a drink in college i think but college okay so another thing that's going on right now is little similarities is the viral tiktok club we're in yeah yeah it's the neon moon tiktoks how many billion have we done now brightened over two billion two billion wow on neon moon it's fun i love it come out of blue we did we don't know what was happening it just happened for us did you see my donkey tiktok no oh you got to watch that we were out at the farm and Justin said man i'm a survivor tiktok's going crazy we need to participate so Rex had an idea of getting the donkeys involved so he videoed he wrote the script this has sounded real weird and kinky yeah yeah that's getting better really yeah uh-huh it's so we got to watch it and we had like i think six billion hits on it okay six billion do you have four do i say no trillion i'm sorry yeah uh pay break right down reba donkey tiktok yeah and then we've got more than riddler our french bulldog so okay and then there's a french bulldog how many billions he got billions on that too yeah we're not competitive are we no not at all not at all how did y'all uh survive covid in the pandemic and having to stay at home i got covid you know i was like one of the first covid victims and then after that you know i played golf and spent most of my time in the woods and i think we're on in our both fortunate enough we got a little property uh got some woods outside of town and we both like that you know we chase animals ride four wheelers shoot guns dude you know he'll really read next stuff yeah i did everything that i could not do you know as a singer and you're not talking about reba we live this stuff the singing thing and it's just like running from the voice issues like grass is my enemy you know you're not gonna catch me on a long more yeah i mean i love doing it but i can't get around it can't be around hay all that so once that happened covid shut us all down kind of odd to say but i feel free for first time a long time like a giant you know weight had been lifted off my shoulders so i just dove into everything i could that i wasn't supposed to and had a great time yeah and and if you did kind of get a scratchy throat no worries no stress wasn't there no i used to mind no my goal was if it was if it's a month out i have to sing now i'm locked down making everybody miserable you know just getting up every morning all that i've been actually at the end of the day stop and go sit outside and talk to my kids on the phone yeah with face time how about that yeah so i kind of enjoyed the time off i've never gone this long without singing of course we did record an album or two or three with revived remix revisited but just getting to stay at home and eat what you want not worry about it i'm paying for it now loving it still. The three of us will never take off from work. So being forced into it was a blessing. I think. Yeah, it really was. You know, I've interviewed Gene Smart and Dolly Parton. I asked them both. I said, do you think you'll ever retire? And Dolly said, what would I do that I can have this much fun doing? And then Gene said, Oh, no, no, no, no, Betty Watts, my hero. I know they're always going to need a little woman in a wheelchair on the front porch. So no, I'm having a blast, which she's having the greatest time right now. And so it's, it's just fun to know that people love their work. It was fun surfing back around. You know, we got to a point where I did or thought, Hey, I quit and not look back and, you know, go do something and I could just call myself circling back around to it after a while. Yeah. Then we get out on the stage and do the show. It's more fun than it's ever been. I can't believe we're coming up on Vegas. This is our last hurrah. As daddy used to say, last hurrah, we're going to get to do there. And I hate that we've missed all of 2020 and 2021 not getting to perform. They're except here at the end of 2021 at Vegas. Missed a lot of who's and some Rawls. You bet. Man, it was fun. And I can't wait till December to get to go back and do it again. Thank you for dragging us out there. Got us fired up again. You got us drunk in Mexico and next thing we know we're going to Vegas. Well, it's been fun. It's kind of something you don't, you just dream up, you know. Oh, absolutely. And some ways, you know, you just think of all those names and people that have been there. I can remember the first time we've ever played and just kind of did a touch and go on the way to California or something. We had one night or something looked out. They're like, that's the same marquee Frank Sinatra's name was on. Yeah. When's the first time you all played, Vegas? Probably probably again, early 90s. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. About 93 94 95 maybe. Mine was 82. I had been playing clubs and hulking tunks and rodeos, beer joints. And we were playing with Steve Warner out in, I think Amarilla. And Susie was singing backup for me. And so we got back to the motel and I didn't want to close my eyes because my eyes burned so much from the cigarette smoke agent the next day. And I said, okay, no more clubs. No more club. And my husband at the time Charlie Battle said, well, good Lord, your career will be over. You might as well hang it up. If I have to do this, I'll have to hang it up. I won't have a voice. And the next week, the statler brothers called and said, we need a a girl singer. And they said, well, Reba, my can tire sure would like to go out on tour with you. And that's where we started was in Vegas. Talk about going from rags to riches. No kidding. Hulking tunks to Vegas. I thought, oh, I'll never see another poor day. And then right after that, we played Opalus, Illusiana on a flatbed trailer for 70 people, same 70 people both shows. You're all we've all got those. What inspired y'all to be singing in the first place? You mean period at the beginning or together? Well, I'll give you my story and then y'all can tell yours when we were coming to Nashville in 76 January. And I was postponed in every way I could. Let's stop here. Let's stop here. Mom said, right, if you don't want to go to Nashville, we don't have to. Let's turn on go home. But I'll be living all my dreams through you. And I said, we'll shoot far. Why didn't you say so? Let's go. So when mama died, I looked as Susie. I said, I think my want to has gone. And she said, oh, no, no, you'll get it back. And it was probably two to three months before I said, okay, I'm ready to go back and sing again. So what gave y'all your want to to start singing? Whether we know it or not, it's just an innate thing as part of us. My father, he was an aspiring country singer and planted that seed. So it's like, remember, it's been around that. And we moved all the time. So, but the one thing that was constant was music in the house. And it's like every thing I gravitated to in college, it all became music. Yeah. You know, trying to be a psych major. I don't know. I'm not going to classes. I'm going to play with bands and doing stuff with all the other guys who involve in music. So yeah, it boils down to needing attention in some way. I don't know how deep that is, but I know I was always a show off. Well, my wife will tell you that. Yeah. Just what do you need? So much attention for me. Yeah. As a family, just always singing and playing it. I think it was probably a talent show in the third grade or something was the first time I played that song about the Green Bray was it, was a hit. No, I remember fighting soldiers from the sun. Exactly. And I played that. And man, everybody clapped and all of a sudden I went from feeling, you know, completely like I had no place in the world to everybody's pat me on the back. And I'm like, okay, God, I know how to do this. And by sixth grade, I got an electric guitar. And I can play four notes. And now they're really, yeah, they're really screaming. I'm only, I'm only 12 years old. Are you kidding? I know, it just keeps going. When we started touring in the early 90s, I'll never forget the first thing I said to y'all, no pranks, because y'all are famous. I can't remember that time we were doing the encore of cotton fields. And you and I were singing pretty much toe to toe. And when we got through with it and we were backstage, I think I said, would you please please quit spitting in my face? And I didn't spit in your face. Yeah, you did. And so the next night when I got to my dressing room, there was this beautiful yellow hooded slicker on the back of the dressing room door. And I think you got me boots. I don't remember for sure. But I said, all that's cute, that's cute. And Sandy Speaker, who was doing my wardrobe and hair on that tour, she said, okay, just be ready. And I said, what do you mean be ready? She just be ready. So when we got to cotton fields that next night, you start singing and she motioned me over. And I put on that yellow slicker. And I know the audience was like, what is she doing? She's got on this real sparkly outfit. And here she's putting on this yellow slicker. But you got a big kick out of it. I mean, it was good. That's about the only thing I ever got you back at. You pie the hell out of me. I got slapped in the face with a fricking pie like three days into our rehearsals or something like, okay, as your birthday. It was not my birthday. It was like your birthday. We only did it at birthdays. And it was a Tom Nyson and Brian Leedham thing. I mean, they were into it. Here's the thing. When you pass somebody, it's like you slap somebody in the face with a pie and everybody laughs. But Tom like took his thumb and just dug it into my and I'm like, okay, so that's now. Do you think he did that intentionally? I know he did. I know he did. He's mean and nasty. And it's all reflective of the whole Reba McIntyre organization. Trying to blind you. Yeah, trying to blind me fine. These are the kind of people you want to associate with. For as I'm concerned, game on. And I guess he thought you were getting way too much attention. I mean, I'll press to be head since a lot is the case is building up. I just send my attorney, you know, all these all these things week by week is all the things that are related to that one pie, you know, one of the statue limitations. I think forever as far as I'm concerned, you know, because it was a malicious act and started. I'm just going for days. I think that's probably the best prank I've ever heard. Well, in my life. Tell the Reba story. Well, and Reba story. And oh, yes, we do. Yeah, you were there. I've got photographs we can add to this podcast or whatever. So Reba had this little box that had a little gun turret up top where during a particular part of this show when the stage would go black and she would sneak off the side of the stage and she would get in this box and they will it around the auditorium and it would come up on a little stage out in the front. She banged the band would stop in a spotlight comes up on Reba and she's just a little bit and she would do this whole thing. She would come walking back through the crowd. Well, Ronnie, a couple of our crew guys had gotten these stinkbombs, but they're not like the kind you get at a gag store where you go, that smells like rotten eggs. These would literally, I mean, they would gag you. These are like military. I don't know what the military does. Well, the guys got them from the army surplus store. Yeah, for some reason, I don't know why they would have one, but all the crew guys come back with this stuff like that. Well, fortunately, they got two of them. So we got to bust one ahead of time and just everybody gagged out and we went, ooh, that we're going to save those. That'll come in handy. We had to test run it. Just so happened, I got pad, which you know, left the thing open. And then we decided, okay, why wouldn't we just put one of those stinkbombs in this box? And that'd be fun. That's like getting pad in the face. Not even close. So it was time. It was our night. Game was on. She comes off in her way, but we can't get this thing busted. So I go running off to get a hammer. I come back. He's got it wrapped in a towel and he steps on it and he smashes it with his boot. And by the time I get back, I mean, I got within 20 feet of that thing. And I'm like, oh god. And here comes Reuben. She gets in her box. And the last thing I see is that box turned in the corner and like, it looked like a turkey at a turkey. shoot that little head comes up out of her to her. She's trying to get a breath air. I'm like, man, we're in so much trouble. And here's, here it comes running our stand through the stage, you know, through the little slot we've got where we can see out to her, her little, her little stage out in the middle and it's her time to jump up and bam, the band stops and Reba time for her to come up and, ooh, no, RSBCT, no Reba. And then she comes walking up those steps and she's got that look on her face like it's not like she's jumping on to say she does because she's the all pro, but she's looking at that stage like y'all are so freaking dead. We're like, oh, I think she might really be pissed this time. And then she starts coming through the crowd with my favorite part. And I could see this guy has got one of those cardboard. This is tough. This is true and completely unrehearse. Yes, just to top it off. There's this guy. He's got one of those cardboard things you get at football games and it's got like four beers and some nachos in the middle of it, you know, I'm talking about. And he's, he's trying to hand his stuff to his wife. He's got his back to Reba, who's trudging now through the audience. And they're all starting to go up to, because they want to shake hands and high five, but it's the cluster they get. They're like, oh, god, what's that smell? You know, 'cause now she's got that stink on her. And she's, this guy's wife is pointing at Reba going, and he finally swings around and splashes beer on Reba. And now she's wet and she's got the stink on her. And she has a look on her face. And we're like, we know we're so dead. We need to go. We really need to go. And she comes up, she finishes the song. Well, all good except now we've got an encore. And this is really bad because we were doing, if you seem, if you see her. And I'm safe because I'm on a piano way up on the top. But Ronnie's got to go toe to toe with her. And I'm like, man, she's going to kill you. You were so dead. And he did one of the coolest things he's done in our career. He gets over in the same box where we got in the hammer out of to try and bust this thing. There was some black electricians tape in there. And he takes it and he puts it over his first three teeth there. So when he smiled, he looked like it's teeth. And I'm like, freaking awesome. And Reba goes, if you see him, and Ronnie goes, if you see her and finally, I thought, okay, maybe we're not dead in the story. Oh my gosh. All righty. We'll be right back after the break. All right. I'm going to tell all of our listening audience who Slim and Howdy is their y'all's alter egos of modern day cowboys and search of country stardom. And they develop these alter egos over time in their liner notes. Correct? Uh-huh. Yep. All right. So in honor of the end of our Vegas residency, we're going to play a little game called Slim and Howdy Go to Vegas. And we're going to imagine that Slim and Howdy have stumbled into some very vacancy situations. And you guys tell me what they would do. Okay? Uh-huh. Yep. All right. Slim and Howdy walk by a wedding at the Elvis Chapel and get asked to be witnesses. Do they join the wedding? Uh-huh. I think they will. Yes. Slim and Howdy would for how do they join the wedding? We'd play the preacher off in cash real quick. Howdy would talk slamming to be an Elvis, to be an Elvis impersonator. And he would, and he would get him married. One of us would be the limo driver to take him away. And then there would be some, there would be some major controversy because they weren't legally able to do that. So they would spend the rest of the night talking to pretty girls trying to figure out if any of them knew a good preacher. All right. I love that one. All right. Y'all excellent. Okay. Slim and Howdy. Sorry. Accidentally get trapped inside of a hairstylist convention on the third floor of your hotel. And there's no clear way out. They get asked by a cosmetologist if they won't a total makeover. Do they go for it? Howdy starts starts doing an hair for for the hairdressers. Slim, get me out of here. All right. Now here's one. They're at the crap tables, which you love to do kicks. And they're winning. And it would be a lot of money to lose. What's their next move? Slam would definitely go double or nothing. He's all in all the time. Oh, now I would have said the opposite. I would have said howdy would have stayed and kept playing and slim would have said I'm taking my winnings. That said, howdy would have encouraged him to take his time. We can make some money here if we do it the right way. And slim will go just put it all on the line. We got we got somewhere to be. Okay. Well, I know the answer to this next one. They're staying at hotel with a crazy pool party with ear rattling, thumping music. How do they react? Check out the crowd and see if it's worth going down and hanging out, right? Absolutely. That's what I thought. Let's dance. I thought you'll be just right in amongst them. Much of naked cowgirls. We're in. We're going to try to find some clothes and clean it up. That's it. Okay. Here's a good one. Here's the last one. They see a ribbon macking tire impersonator on the strip. What do they do? First of all, check out see how deep his voice is. Yeah. Can you sing bass? Thanks guys so much for being with me on my podcast. I appreciated it. It was really sweet to go down memory lane with y'all. You got anything else to tell our fans out there? Listening. See in Vegas, right? Now it's good catching up with you after all the COVID stuff last year. I know you've got like a new boyfriend now and all kind of crazy stuff happening. So maybe we catch up in Vegas, you know, time flew here. Rex will be there in Vegas and we'll have to all catch up and have a big, righty time. Okay. Love it. All right. I love you both very, very much. Thanks for joining me today on my podcast and I'll see you in Vegas. Thanks for having us. Love you too, Reeve. Thanks for the invite. See you soon. Well, thanks for listening. I had such a wonderful time visiting with my old friend Ronnie and Kicks. Come back here next week for another episode of Living and Learning. Only own Spotify. See you next week. Well, thanks for listening to Living and Learning with Reeve and Mac and Tyre. A Spotify original production. Our lead producer is Dylan Rupert with producer Baron Farmer. Our executive producers are Gina Delvack, Yassie Solick, Danny Trebatch, and Justin Macintosh, editing by Cheryl Crosby, original music by Doug Seismore. Special thanks to Leah Edwards, Robert Adler, Kacey Simonson, and Kyla Connero. I'm your host, Reeve Macintosh. Follow us only on Spotify.