Brooks & Dunn: Kings of Neon

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn rocketed to stardom in the 1990s, and for two decades, they remained leaders in country music, with hits including “Neon Moon,” “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” “Hard Workin’ Man,” “My Maria” and “Red Dirt Road.”

The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will tell the story of the best-selling country duo of all time, Country Music Hall of Fame members-elect Brooks & Dunn, in the exhibition Brooks & Dunn: Kings of Neon. The exhibit encompasses the duo’s early solo careers, the circumstances that united them as performers and their innovative approach to stage production and touring.

Brooks & Dunn Exhibition Highlights

Items featured in Brooks & Dunn: Kings of Neon include awards, custom-built instruments and personal artifacts. Some highlights:

• Dozens of awards presented to Brooks & Dunn between 1992 and 2006, including Grammys, CMA and ACM awards
• Neon Circus & Wild West Show-themed Les Paul electric guitar, built for Brooks by the Gibson Custom Shop’s Master Luthier, Bruce Kunkel, in 2001. The instrument features rope-shaped binding and ornamentation; a hand-carved and painted cowgirl on the lower bout; carved volume and tone knobs in the shape of horned toads; mother-of-pearl cowgirl inlays on the fingerboard and headstock and a sterling silver pickguard engraved, “Brooks & Dunn, Neon Circus and Wild West Show”
• Red cowboy boots decorated with steer’s head inlays, worn by Dunn when he was around five years old
• Hand-tooled leather guitar strap made for Brooks by Hutch’s Custom Saddlery and embellished with oak leaf and acorn imagery and the names of Brooks’ wife, Barb, and their children, Molly and Eric
• “Neon Moon”-themed archtop electric guitar with custom blue finish and crescent moon inlay, presented to Dunn in 2001 by the Gibson Custom Shop
• Racing suits with steer’s head logos, worn by Brooks and Dunn when they drove 5/8th-scale Legends race cars in the 1990s
• Early draft lyrics to “Red Dirt Road,” written by Dunn

Source: Country Music Hall of Fame