What is Kix Brooks’s Net Worth?
Kix Brooks is a country music singer-songwriter, radio host, actor, and film producer who has a net worth of $45 million. Kix Brooks is best known as one half of the country music duo Brooks & Dunn, alongside Ronnie Dunn. Among the duo’s numerous hit songs are “Brand New Man,” “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” “Little Miss Honky Tonk,” “My Maria,” and “Ain’t Nothing ’bout You.” Brooks has also released music as a solo artist, including a self-titled album in 1989 and “New to This Town” in 2012.
Early Life and Education
Kix Brooks, whose real name is Leon Brooks III, was born on May 12, 1955 in Shreveport, Louisiana. He has a sister, a half-sister, and two half-brothers. As a youth, Brooks attended Sewanee Military Academy, an Episcopal school in Tennessee. He then went to Louisiana Tech University, where he studied theater. One summer during college, Brooks worked with his father on an oil pipeline in Alaska. After he graduated from Louisiana Tech, he did advertising for a company in Maine that was owned by his sister and brother-in-law.
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Brooks & Dunn
After spending several years as a solo artist in the 1980s, Brooks formed the country music duo Brooks & Dunn with Ronnie Dunn in 1990. Signed to Arista Nashville, the duo released their debut album, “Brand New Man,” in the summer of 1991. A big success, it spawned four number-one singles on the country chart: “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” “My Next Broken Heart,” “Neon Moon,” and the title track. Brooks & Dunn continued their success with their second album, “Hard Workin’ Man,” which came out in early 1993. It launched a string of hit songs, including “Rock My World (Little Country Girl),” “She Used to Be Mine,” and “That Ain’t No Way to Go.” The duo’s next album, 1994’s “Waitin’ on Sundown,” became their first to reach number one on the Top Country Albums chart. It also spawned the number-one country singles “She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind,” “Little Miss Honky Tonk,” and “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone.” Brooks & Dunn had another number-one album with “Borderline,” released in 1996; its biggest single was “My Maria,” a cover of the B. W. Stevenson song. The song went on to win the Grammy Award for Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Brooks & Dunn’s final two studio albums of the decade were “If You See Her” (1998) and “Tight Rope” (1999), neither of which was quite as commercially successful as their prior work.
In 2001, Brooks & Dunn released their seventh studio album, “Steers & Stripes.” Reaching number one on the Top Country Albums chart and number four on the Billboard 200, it spawned the number-one country singles “Ain’t Nothing ’bout You,” “Only in America,” and “The Long Goodbye.” The first single, “Ain’t Nothing ’bout You,” became Brooks & Dunn’s biggest hit, spending six consecutive weeks atop the country chart and reaching number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The duo went on to release the Christmas album “It Won’t Be Christmas Without You” in 2002. They followed that in 2003 with “Red Dirt Road,” another number-one album on the Top Country Albums chart. Brooks & Dunn scored a number-one album again with “Hillbilly Deluxe,” released in 2005. Their next studio album, “Cowboy Town,” peaked at number four on the country chart in 2007. Brooks & Dunn continued performing until 2010, when they split up on amicable terms. They reunited in 2014 and 2015 for a series of concerts with Reba McEntire. At the end of the decade, the duo released their first studio album in 12 years, entitled “Reboot.” It debuted at number one on the Top Country Albums chart and number eight on the Billboard 200. Brooks & Dunn released a sequel, “Reboot II,” in late 2024.
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Solo Career
Brooks began his solo music career in the early 1980s, working as a staff songwriter for Tree Publishing in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1983, he released his first solo single, “Baby, When Your Heart Breaks Down,” but the song achieved only moderate commercial success. Returning to songwriting for other artists, Brooks co-wrote “Modern Day Romance” for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1985. The song was a huge hit, reaching number one on the country chart. At the end of the decade, Brooks released his self-titled debut solo album, which featured the single “Sacred Ground.”
During the breakup of Brooks & Dunn in the early 2010s, Brooks resumed his solo career. In 2012, he released his second solo album, “New to This Town,” which peaked at number 10 on the Top Country Albums chart. The album’s title track, featuring guitarist Joe Walsh, reached number 31 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Brooks’s next album was “Ambush at Dark Canyon,” the soundtrack to the film of the same name that he executive-produced and starred in. It came out in early 2014.
Other Work
In early 2006, Brooks began hosting the syndicated radio countdown show “American Country Countdown.” He succeeded the longtime former host Bob Kingsley. Later, in 2015, Brooks hosted the food travel television program “Steak Out with Kix Brooks” on the Cooking Channel.
In 2013, Brooks established the film production company Team 2 Entertainment with his son Eric. The company has produced such independent films as “Dug Up,” “Ambush at Dark Canyon,” and “Born Wild,” some of which Brooks has also acted in. He also voiced the titular pooch in the 2016 family film “Timber the Treasure Dog.”
Personal Life
With his wife Barbara, whom he married in 1981, Brooks has two children named Molly and Eric. Brooks and his wife reside on a 550-acre farm in Williamson County, Tennessee. In Nashville, Brooks co-owns the winery Arrington Vineyards.
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