That’ll get your attention. Brooks & Dunn are one of the most legendary country music duos of all time, with 20 #1 hits, two Grammy Awards, 20 CMA Awards, and 31 ACM Awards. What makes it even more incredible is that they’re still drawing massive crowds today, nearly 35 years after the release of their debut album Brand New Man back in 1991. Not only are they heading out on their Neon Moon Tour this fall, but Brooks & Dunn are currently opening for Morgan Wallen on his Still the Problem Tour and introducing themselves to a whole new audience more than three decades into their career. They’ve also managed to reach a new audience through TikTok, with songs like “Neon Moon,” “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” and “Hard Workin’ Man” going viral over the past few years. But back in 2009, it looked like the legendary duo might be done for good. While still scoring hits with songs like “Cowgirls Don’t Cry,” “Put A Girl In It,” and “Indian Summer,” Brooks & Dunn announced that they would be going their separate ways following their 2010 The Last Rodeo Tour.  At the time, Kix Brooks explained that they simply felt it was time to bring the ride to an end: “It’s too good a horse to ride it into the ground. We’re still good friends. I’m proud to say we’ve never had a fight, never even yelled at each other. And that’s the truth.” But one person who didn’t feel the same was country music legend Merle Haggard. Brooks & Dunn would reunite in 2015 to perform a series of concerts in Las Vegas with Reba McEntire, and it was largely thanks to Haggard that they decided to get back together. As Kix Brooks recently recalled during an interview with RFD-TV, the Hag wasn’t happy with the duo of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn for walking away from the good thing they had going: “He had already chewed my butt because Ronnie and I stopped in 2010. We really thought we’d gone as far as we could. And he chewed me out then. … We’re in Woodstock, New York, sold out with him, he’s looking out the window and he goes, ‘What the hell are y’all doing?’ I went, ‘I don’t know Merle, what are we doing?’ ‘All those people out there, why would you stop playing?'” Brooks says he and Dunn had been together for 20 years at that point, and needed a break. But later on, Brooks was interviewing Merle for his American Country Countdown radio show when Haggard once again pressed them on why they would walk away from something that was so successful: “He just took a pause in the middle of me catching up with him … and he finally said, ‘When are you getting back together with Ronnie?’ I said, ‘I don’t know Merle, we’re talking, we’ve been duck hunting quite a few times.’ He goes, ‘No, I mean when are you two getting back together and doing your job? You two got a thing. Everybody doesn’t get that opportunity. There’s no explaining why you two are so successful except you write good songs, but at the level you guys have gotten to, don’t waste that. You guys have a thing, and you need to get back to work.'” Brooks said Merle was like the duo’s “living dad” at the time, so he sent the clip from the interview to Ronnie Dunn. “It really put a fire underneath us.” I mean, when a country music legend like Merle Haggard tells you that you need to get back to work, there’s not really any other choice than to get back to work. And I’m glad they did, because they’re still just as good as they’ve ever been. Thanks for that one, Merle. The post Kix Brooks Says Merle Haggard “Chewed His Butt” When Brooks & Dunn Split Up first appeared on Whiskey Riff.