Rnnie Dunn, the latest big-name headliner to perform at the L’Auberge Events Center, began his career as a closet country
music performer while in college.
Dunn will be onstage at L’Auberge at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10.
A native of Coleman, Texas, near
Abilene, he and some friends started playing music together in the
stairwell of the dorm
at Hardin-Simmons University “because it had a great reverb
effect.” Dunn majored in theology at the Baptist-affiliated university
with plans to become a Baptist minister.
The student music group won a talent contest at the university, and that was Dunn’s first taste of success. He snuck away
from his friends on weekends to play bass guitar with country groups at VFWs, Moose lodges and the like.
“Country music wasn’t popular with the college crowd in those days, so I kept it secret” Dunn told the American Press in a telephone interview from his home in Nashville, Tenn.
Later, while a student at Abilene
Christian University, a school with Church of Christ history, he was
given a choice of quitting
his gigs at honky-tonks or leaving the college. He chose his
music.
In August he performed a benefit concert in Abilene.
“It sure has changed,” he said.
Dunn said his father always wanted a career in music, but he worked all his life in the oil fields. Ronnie attended 13 schools
in 12 years because of his father’s frequent job location changes.
“When I started thinking about a music career, my grandparents said “No! Don’t do it.” Dunn said.
But Dunn ignored the advice.
Through a stroke of luck and the wisdom of a record producer, he hooked up with Shreveport native Leon Eric (Kix) Brooks,
and the Brooks and Dunn duo was an instant success. Their first single, “Brand New Man,” debuted on the country charts and
soared to No. 1 in 1991.
The song became the title track of their first album, which went to platinum in 1992. Over the next 20 years, the pair of
songwriters-vocalists was a consistent chart topper and Grammy winner.
They retired from Brooks and Dunn in
2010. Ronnie Dunn spent some time in reflection, doodling with songs
when his wife would
tell him to go out to the barn and think things over. The “barn”
is a man cave, recreation center and recording studio on
the couple’s ranch in Nashville. After weighing his options and
deciding what he wanted for his future, Dunn set to work and
recorded his self-titled album, which met with great success in
June 2011.
Dunn has three albums in the works waiting to be cut after some turmoil in the recording industry settles, he said.
“The labels are restructuring,” he said.
His solo career “half sucks and half doesn’t,” he joked, referring to the difficulties with the recording business.
He is enjoying his live performances.
“I am really in it for the music,” he said. “I am enjoying this (solo career) more than anything I’ve ever done,” he said.
Ronnie Dunn concert at the L’Auberge Lake Charles Events Center at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10.
Tickets start at $55 and are available at 800-745-3000, Legends memorabilia shop at L’Auberge or the L’Auberge Business Center.
Must be 21 or older to enter.