Brooks & Dunn photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

As Brooks & Dunn gets ready to launch its final tour, the Last Rodeo, the duo is considering nearly 20 years of weird road moments, fan highlights and stage antics gone wrong.

One of the oddest memories comes from early in their history, when Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn shot the video for “Hard Workin’ Man.” One of the effects for that piece piqued Kix’ interest, and he immediately had to have the gear for himself.

“It looked like a leaf blower, but it was actually a smoke machine,” Kix told an audience at the recent Country Radio Seminar. “‘My God, that is awesome! I want that! How much does it cost?’ [The crew member] told me, and I bought it from him.”

Once he owned the machine, though, Kix had to figure out how to make use of it. He got an idea to strap it on a guitar and make it a stage prop, using it to shower the stage and crowd with smoke when they played “Hard Workin’ Man,” which was at the time Brooks & Dunn’s closing number. Kix took the idea to Gibson Guitars, which figuratively rolled its eyes and turned him down.

So Kix went home and built his own fake guitar out of wood, painting it with bright flames and prepping it for a dynamic spot in the show.

“It sounded like a lawn mower,” Kix noted. “They fired it up behind the stage and crank it up, and everybody’s out there singin’ [in the audience]. And we had on the stage this stuff called Marley. I don’t know if you know what that is, but it’s rubber that you roll out on the stage.”

In typical fashion, Kix became a maniac. He hosed the crowd, he hosed the band, he hosed Ronnie. What he didn’t realize is that he was kind of hosing himself, too.

“I didn’t know that the smoke is actually made from vegetable oil!” Kix laughed.

Predictably, once it was released into the air, the smoke returned to its oily state, then settled on the Marley floor mats. In no time at all, Kix and the crew hit the mats, too.

“When I busted my ass, I looked over and Ronnie was on his ass, and the guitar player was on his ass, and Ronnie had that look on his face,” Kix recalled. “You know how ice is when it has water on it? It’s not just ice, and you can’t even shuffle your feet. That’s how slick it was, and I saw [Ronnie] try to get up a couple of times, and he was lookin’ at me like, ‘If I ever catch you I will kill you.’”

The show came to a close, the curtain drew, and Brooks & Dunn literally had to roll over and crawl off the Marley before they could stand up again. Once they did, Kix had a plan for avoiding Ronnie’s wrath.

“I remember hittin’ the stage and takin’ off like John Wilkes Booth!” Kix laughed. “I was outta there!”

It’s a good bet there will be no vegetable-oil smoke sending Kix and Ronnie back to the mat on the Last Rodeo. It all comes to a close with a major, career-wrapping concert Aug. 10 in Nashville with multiple guests, and all the proceeds are slated for the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Tickets for that show go on sale Saturday morning.

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