Brooks & Dunn‘s “Only in America” has become one of country music’s great anthems celebrating this nation and its people, but following the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 — eight years ago tomorrow — Kix and Ronnie had their concerns about the song and a scheduled performance in Pennsylvania, just two days after nine-eleven. “To this day,” Ronnie says, “it’s emotional to even think about that,” but it was the audience, Kix recalls, who made it clear what they wanted to hear. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• “Only in America” is one of the Brooks & Dunn classics on their newly released #1s … and then some.

  Brooks & Dunn recall their concerns about a show and singing “Only in America” just shortly after the events of September 11th, 2001. (:60)
Ronnie: “We flew right into Pennsylvania…was it two days after?”
Kix: “Mm-hmm.”
Ronnie: “Not far from where the plane had gone down, and it was a fair. And we had talked about canceling it, ’cause we didn’t think it was appropriate. And we decided to do it. People were showin’ up, and so it was the thing to do. That was, to this day, it’s emotional to even think about that…”
Kix: “I remember jumpin’ on Ronnie’s bus ’cause it just dawned on me, the first line of the song is ‘Sun comin’ up, over New York City,’ and it just kind of hit me. And we were openin’ the show with it anyway. I said, ‘Is this weird for us just to go yee-hawin’ out there?’ And we realized once then we walked out and we hit that song, and we realized that audience was packed with flags and signs and ‘God bless the U.S.A.’ And to look out across that audience, I breathed such a sigh of relief. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, they got it. They came here to party; they came here to celebrate this country, and this is gonna be a good night.'”