While Kix Brooks was becoming one half of the hottest new duo in country music, another band was simultaneously having its biggest hit with a song left behind by the solo career that had not worked.
The artist on its cover never became the star he had intended, but one of its songs did eventually find the audience it had missed the first time.
Before Ronnie Dunn, Kix Brooks had already spent years trying to make Nashville work. He moved there in 1979 and discovered fairly quickly that his songs were getting farther than his voice.
John Conlee took Brooks’ “I’m Only in It for the Love” to No. 1 in 1983. Two years later the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did the same with “Modern Day Romance.”
Still Chasing His Own Recording Career
Brooks still wanted his own recording career. An early deal with Avion Records collapsed when the label went bankrupt. Then Capitol Nashville gave him another chance.
In 1989 he released the self titled album Kix Brooks. One of its singles was “Sacred Ground” written by Brooks with Vernon Rust. It did not break him.
Brooks later remembered hearing from radio stations that Capitol was not really working the record. He went directly to a label executive who admitted he simply did not understand what Brooks was doing.
Brooks’ response was unusual for someone still chasing his first major solo success. He essentially said they should shake hands and part ways. His reasoning was practical because he was a songwriter and he did not want good songs climbing only into the lower reaches of the chart and dying because the label was not committed to them.
Brooks & Dunn Made The Solo Dream Irrelevant
Not long afterward Tim DuBois heard Brooks’ work and introduced him to Ronnie Dunn. Brooks & Dunn formed in 1990. Their first four singles became No. 1 country hits and the solo career Brooks had spent years trying to establish was suddenly irrelevant.
But “Sacred Ground” was not finished. MCA’s McBride & the Ride recorded it for their second album in 1992 with Tony Brown and Steve Gibson producing.
This time radio responded. Their recording climbed to No. 2 on Billboard’s country chart, becoming McBride & the Ride’s highest charting Billboard single. The album Sacred Ground went gold and produced two additional Top 5 singles.
Years later Brooks could look back at that Capitol album differently. The record deal went nowhere in 1989, yet three years later another band recorded his song and took it to No. 2, proving the failed solo chapter had left behind something powerful enough to survive it.