"That's What It's All About"

If they can pitch a tent and run a neon circus, you KNOW Ronnie Dunn & Kix Brooks aren't afraid of the unconventional -- and tonight on the Academy of Country Music Awards, the high-flying pair are performing a song that no one's ever heard before. Called "That's What It's All About," the song is something Brooks calls "the gooey center of what happens after the guy in 'Red Dirt Road' figures out to go home and go find Mary," and it's an incredible match for Dunn's muscular rafter scraping voice.

"When we heard it, we flipped for it," says Dunn. "It's got a lot of words, so it's kinda like Bob Dylan's 'Subterrean Homesick Blues,' but then it lays back in this groove on the choruses that just sweep you up -- kinda like Jesse Collin Young's hit with the Youngbloods 'Get Together.' It's very cool -- and we're pretty fired up about it"

The pair -- who broke Merle Haggard's record for most Academy of Country Music Awards when they won Entertainer of the Year two years ago -- are up for a total of 5. In addition to repeating their perennial Entertainer and Duo of the Year nods, the 26-million sellers are up for Album, Song and Single of the Year for Red Dirt Road, "Red Dirt Road" and "Red Dirt Road" accordingly.

back