Brooks & Dunn team up with Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll for ‘Reboot II’ | Music

In 2019, when Brooks & Dunn collaborated with such sizzling new artists as Luke Combs, Ashley McBryde and Brothers Osborne for Reboot, a set of duets protecting a number of the famous person duo’s most beloved songs, they may have by no means imagined that inside 5 years there could be a complete new crop of burgeoning stars to revisit the idea. 

Reboot proved to be such a great success — offering the Country Hall of Fame pair with their first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart in a decade — that it appeared pure to, nicely, reboot Reboot, however with just a few twists.

Reboot II, out Nov. 15 on Sony Music Nashville, includes a legion of recent nation artists, lots of whom had been simply experiencing their first flushes of success or weren’t even signed but 5 years in the past, together with Megan Moroney, Hailey Whitters, Lainey Wilson, Ernest and Warren Zeiders, however the brand new set additionally broadens the idea to incorporate rockers Halestorm and bluesmen Marcus King and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. Among the opposite artists on the album are Morgan Wallen, Jelly Roll, HARDY and Corey Kent.

“What was even more impressive was to sit down with this bunch and turn them loose to do the songs in whatever way fit their artistic vision,” Ronnie Dunn tells Billboard. “The fun part was we weren’t chasing the original recordings or arrangements or our versions. We turned them loose to do whatever they wanted to do and, I’m biased, but it was really refreshing.”

Hearing a few of their songs, whereas nonetheless recognizable, turned on their heads and recreated with new preparations, tempos and even as totally different genres, “made me realize how good we are,” Dunn says with fun, earlier than critically including, “I think how lucky we are to have these songs that you can push the chameleon button on, and they change colors and keep on ticking.”

Unlike the primary version, the place Kacey Musgraves and just a few different artists upended their takes however for essentially the most half the remakes stayed true to the originals, half the enjoyable of listening to Reboot II are the surprising roads a number of the songs down — akin to Moroney and Dunn’s slowed down, sultry duet on “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You,” The Earls of Leicester’s spirited bluegrass tackle “How Long Gone” and Marcus King’s high-octane model of “Rock My World (Little Country Girl),” which screeches out of the gate.

It seems Brooks & Dunn, one in all nation’s most profitable duos with 20 No. 1s on the Country Airplay chart — would have fortunately embraced extra reinventions on the primary go-round. “I think artistically, Kix and I kind of wanted to let the horse run like we did on this on the first one — but the mandate was, ‘Hey this is an experiment. We haven’t done it before, so let’s try to keep the truck between the lines.’ And we were very pleased with it. But this is a whole different animal.” Then with what can solely be described as a mischievous chuckle, he provides, “I mean, this is gonna offend some people!”

Surprise greater than offend extra possible, given how Halestorm turns Brooks & Dunn’s basic “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” up to 11 with screaming guitars and Dunn going face to face with lead singer Lizzy Hale. 

“[Halestorm] did not disappoint,” says Kix Brooks, including that greater than 30 years into their partnership, it’s good for Brooks & Dunn to shake issues up a bit.  “At this point in our career, we can’t really be nervous about that, especially on a record like this, and especially inviting some of the artists we did, like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Halestorm. Halestorm is a  actually badass, actually tight rock band and no matter track they arrive in with heads are going to bang.”

Furthermore, Brooks says a number of the artists upped Brooks & Dunn’s recreation in a method that delighted them. “It was fun to see Ronnie go toe-to-toe with Lizzy,” he says. “I was like, ‘Good luck pal’ — but he did. I feel like a lot of the stuff really challenged us in a way that maybe we weren’t before. Kingfish came in on ‘Hard Workin’ Man’ with this funky blues thing, because that’s what he does with his band… then it’s like, ‘Holy crap. How are we going to plug into this?’ That was a whole new level of fun.”

Like the primary Reboot, Brooks & Dunn had been within the studio with the acts — no artists added their elements individually as occurs in lots of such collaborative albums. 

“I felt like it would be rude not to be [there],” Dunn says. The duo largely left it to their friends to return up with new interpretations, however had been there to help if the artist received “bogged down, and it would become a team sport to figure things out.”

While Dann Huff produced Reboot, this time he nonetheless did nearly all of Reboot II’s tracks — however artists had been additionally inspired to make use of producers and musicians they routinely work with, which added Joey Moi, Kristian Bush and Jerry Douglas to the combo (alongside with some unintentional levity). “Kristian, who was producing Megan, has a very cosmic approach to producing,” Brooks says. “He was doing this thing with his hands like, ‘We just need to interweave this and that into that,’ and I was like, ‘You got that, don’t you, Ronnie?’” 

“We almost threw him out the window,” Dunn says with fun — including that making Reboot II  “was the most fun we’ve ever had,” partly as a result of there was no strain. 

The album accommodates 18 tracks, together with six songs that had been on Reboot, remade with totally different artists for Reboot II. “You think, ‘How can I do it differently? How can it not be repetitive? And everybody found a new way to give it a twist,’” Dunn says. Brooks cites Luke Combs’ straight-ahead learn on “Brand New Man” for Reboot, whereas Warren Zeiders slows the tune method down on Reboot II and give it a “Nirvana kind of groove.” 

When requested if there may very well be a Reboot III 5 years from now, Dunn says, “We would probably have to write a lot more new songs,” earlier than including, “we’re both writing all the time.”

The new variations additionally appear to guide new followers to find the duo. “Asking our crowds this summer on tour, ‘How many of you are at your first Brooks & Dunn show?’” and most likely 70% of that crowd now has their palms within the air,” Brooks says. “They’re just finding these songs. We kind of have this rebirth on stage that’s kind of hard to describe.”

Though Brooks & Dunn took a touring hiatus from 2010 to 2015, they now don't have any need to see the tip of the street. Their first leg of their 2025 Neon Moon tour, produced by Live Nation, will begin March 13 in Lubbock, Texas and run via April 26 in Louisville. 

“We’ve finally gotten to a place where we can kind of not worry about anything, just get out there and enjoy it,” Brooks says. 

“We’re still drawing the same size crowds we did in our heyday, so let it rock,” Dunn says, including with fun, “And we’re still pretty.”

Brooks & Dunn – Reboot 2 TRACK LIST