Brooks & Dunn decided to call it quits after they realized they'd begun to run out of ideas after 20 years of making hit country music together.
Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn talked about their parting Wednesday during a taping of Country Music Television's "Invitation Only" show, which will air Oct. 30. They announced this week that they plan to release an album of greatest hits that will include a few new songs next month then tour one last time in 2010 before parting.
With Dunn sitting beside him, Brooks told a questioner in the audience that while working on the new album, they looked at each other and said, "You know what? I think we've just kind of exhausted it."
"We've managed year after year to come up with material for albums, gear up for another tour, ideas and all these things," Brooks said. "We've explored everything we could think of musically."
Brooks, 54, said he and Dunn, 56, remain good friends and have never had a "good fight" or even yelled at each other.
"I don't known how to say it any different than it was just time," he said.
Dunn said the duo began as a "contrived act" in 1990, with the two "thrown together" by their record label. They began as co-workers "then ended up more like brothers than anything," he said.
Their many hits include "Boot Scootin' Boogie," "My Maria," "Red Dirt Road" and "Cowgirls Don't Cry" with Reba McEntire.
They've sold more than 30 million albums and had 23 No. 1 hits, according to their label, Arista Nashville.