Ronnie Dunn Debuts New Solo Single, ‘Bleed Red’

After selling more than 30 million albums and wrapping up 20 years as one-half of the popular duo Brooks & Dunn, Ronnie Dunn is getting ready to hit the airwaves with 'Bleed Red,' the first single from his upcoming debut solo album for Sony Music Nashville. Fans can head to his website, RonnieDunn.com, to hear a snippet of the song.

"We all bleed red, all fall down/lose our way/we all say words we regret/we all cry tears/we all bleed red."

'Bleed Red' is described as a powerful ballad with a message of the power of forgiveness. Ronnie explains he felt an overwhelming need to record the song. "This song knocked me out from the first listen," says the singer. "I genuinely felt the spirit of the lyrics in my gut. It's a really big song, and it needed to be sung."

The type of song was not one Ronnie was intent on releasing as his first solo single following the musical split of Brooks & Dunn. "One day, I get this e-mail from a friend, and it's a song called 'Bleed Red.' So I listened to it, just to be nice, and it knocked me out," he reiterates. "It wasn't necessarily the suit that I was planning on wearing to the dance, so to speak, but it was a big song, and I said, 'I'm gonna have to beat Bono to the punch.' [laughs] It sounded like U2, and I'm going, 'Okay, so what if Conway Twitty were to come in and put a vocal on this anyway and cut the song?' So that's what we did."

Before hooking up in 1990 with his pal Kix Brooks, another singer-songwriter, Ronnie had issued three singles between 1983 - 1984 under Churchill/MCA Records. 'It's Written Alll Over Your Face' topped out at No. 59 in 1983, followed by another Top 60 single 'She Put the Sad in All His Songs' that same year. A third single, 'Jessie,' was released in 1984 and failed to make an impact on the country charts.

Fans were also able to get a taste of what they could expect from Ronnie as a solo act. He covered Gary Stewart's 1975 No. 1 hit, 'She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)' for the 'Country Strong' soundtrack, which was released in October.

'Bleed Red' can be heard in its entirety at Ronnie's website beginning this Sunday (January 30) and will be released to radio the next day (January 31). Fans will be able to download the single for their very own on February 8. The full album, featuring 'Bleed Red,' will arrive in stores later this year.

In other Ronnie news, he will join Miranda Lambert in announcing the final nominees for this year's ACM Awards on Tuesday (February 1).

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