The time for The Last Rodeo has arrived — Brooks & Dunn kick off their farewell tour this Friday in California. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn announced last year that they would be ending one of the most successful duos in country music history in 2010, but not before they have one last chance to party with their fans. The duo is fresh off their latest, and last, ACM award show appearance where they claimed their 16th ACM Top Vocal Duo trophy and capped-off years of memorable show performances with the fan-selected mega-hit “My Maria.” The Last Rodeo starts its ride through California this weekend, and then will spend the next few months criss-crossing the nation until it all wraps up in Nashville, Tennessee. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Brooks & Dunn hold the record for most ACM trophies in the Academy’s history — 27.
• Sunday, May 23rd, make sure to tune into CBS Television for the star-studded and music-packed special, ACM Presents: Brooks & Dunn – The Last Rodeo.
• For more info and details about The Last Rodeo tour, head on over to Brooks & Dunn’s website, brooks-dunn.com.

  Brooks & Dunn recall their expectations of being a duo and the first time they headed out on the road together. (:47)
Kix: “The thought of having a 20-year career with this guy, was impossible. I mean, there was no chance that was going to happen. The chance that we might get a record deal, and might get to go record some songs, and possibly have some success, that’s kind of what I was thinking of as best-case scenario. Even to get to tour together, or whatever, seemed like kind of an outside shot. It’s possible, but as things went, it’s like, ‘Okay, you know, you guys got to put a band together.’ And next thing we knew, we had an opening gig with Steve Wariner. You know, we had a couple shows to go do.”
Ronnie: “We just called some buddies. I called a couple of Okie buddies, and he called a couple of his buddies from here, and we threw together a band, and I don’t know what we rehearsed…maybe a couple times, and hit the road.”

  Brooks & Dunn remember the very first meeting where they were put together as a duo. (:18)
Ronnie: “I don’t know. I don’t even remember what we talked about. Do you?”
Kix: “No, it wasn’t much.”
Ronnie: “Just kind of small talk. And he just kind of said, ‘Hey, would you guys, you know, maybe get together, put your heads together, maybe write one or two, and see how it works?’ I had never co-written. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what that was about, and I think he was just seeing how it was going to work, and it did.”

  Sunday night, Brooks & Dunn made their last appearance as a duo on the ACM Awards — and they recall the impact the award show had on their career when they made their very first appearance.
Kix: “Almost the week after that first ACM award show when we won those two awards, the way crowds reacted, the way sales went, it really made a huge impact on us.”
Ronnie: “It shows you how important award shows are for new acts especially.”
Kix: “Yeah.”
Ronnie: “You know, there’s suddenly, people will recognize ya, and see ya and know, they put a…you know, put a face with the image in the song. ‘Cause we go out the next night, I mean, as soon as those award shows were over, we were on the bus. We walk out of that room, onto the bus, and we were gone for, you know, 150 more dates. So, a lot of it is a blur.”