On a recent episode of Kix TV on YouTube, host Kix Brooks sat down for a casual conversation with Garth Brooks and it’s the best 17 minutes you will hear all day. Because these two have 58 years of experience making country music between them — Garth debuted in 1989 and Kix with Brooks & Dunn in 1991 — they know what works, what doesn’t work, why it all starts with a song(writer), and how the hell Garth convinced Blake Shelton to join him on his new “Dive Bar” duet.
In the conversation, Garth reveals that his whole career has been about just begging for a place to play. (Like he sings in “The Old Stuff.”) And Kix shares his own version of the events that led the two of them to these leather chairs.
In the current issue of Cowboys & Indians, Kix admitted that he will never look back on his career in country and rest on his laurels.
“You can’t ever think, ’It’s about time,’” he said about some recent lifetime achievements. “All I ever hope for is to wake up tomorrow and write a good song. This kind of thing may be in the back of your mind, but if money and the Hall of Fame are your goals, I don’t see how you ever achieve anything. You need to take small steps.”
His small steps started with this debut song in 1991:
And here is one of Garth’s first performances of his debut single in 1989: