Kix Brooks Hopes CMT Award Is No ‘Sympathy Vote’

"We were not expecting this -- so much that Mr. Dunn has gone to the restroom ... in Santa Fe, New Mexico!" a solo Kix Brooks joked upon accepting the Duo Video of the Year for Brooks & Dunn's 'Indian Summer' at Wednesday's CMT Awards. "I told you you should be here. If you think I'm bringing you this award, Ronnie, you're crazy! This is just the thing that will make them think we're breaking up the duo."

The notoriously funny Kix kept the mood lighthearted backstage at the show, where he told the crowd of media representatives that no, the win was not bittersweet.

"It feels great, and I'm really proud of this song, which we co-wrote with Bob DiPiero. I thought it was some of our best work, so it's great to win an award for it, " Kix said.

"We've had a lot of great fortune this year and I'd like to think it's not all sympathy votes," he continued. "Right now, we've had as much fun touring as we have ever had. It's not bittersweet for me to win these awards, and that's the honest truth. We're having a lot of fun with what we're doing. There are a lot of folks around us who are getting weepy, but I'm glad we're having the great crowds and having fun playing music.

"It's been an awesome run ... But right now we're writing songs and recording stuff. Now we're getting to do what we want this week, when for the past 20 years we've always had to check with each other to see what we were doing and if it worked for Brooks and Dunn."

Kix says he and Ronnie have been solo artists inside their albums all along, with the exception of the songs they wrote together. "Ronnie and I have a lot of common ground musically, so we'll keep making music; that's what we do. What either one of us do in the future won't be a huge departure from what we've done in the past, that's the kind of music we make. I don't think we're gonna do anything hugely jazz or hip hop, but when you're in a duo you do work within a format of that entity. We would sometimes check ourselves and ask 'Is this Brook & Dunn music?' and you start defining yourself to your fans that you are this kind of music and this kind of artist."

As for the future for the two of them, Kix says no matter what they do it will be fun. "It will be interesting to see," he admits. "When I was writing songs for everybody in town for ten years, I did that with total freedom, and then started working within something we created, and for 20 years we worked it as best we knew how. Everyone is using the 'retire' word, which we never did. Neither one of us has ever said when hell freezes over. We may not tour but it wouldn't be out of the realm for us to write together and maybe do a project together again."

Brooks & Dunn's Last Rodeo tour will be in Florida for three dates this week: Tampa (June 11), West Palm Beach (June 12) and Jacksonville (June 13).