Brooks & Dunn Staying Close to Home for Now

Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn has been battling respiratory problems that forced the duo to cancel an upcoming show in York, Pa., as well as concert dates in Pittsburgh and Chicago this past weekend. Although the illness left him without much of a voice, Dunn's management company reports Ronnie is on the mend, and doing "much better." The duo is expected to return to the road for their next scheduled show in Atlantic City on Oct. 3.

Meanwhile, Ronnie's partner Kix Brooks probably doesn't mind spending some time at home in Nashville, where he and wife Barbara recently plunked down $5.45 million for their new residence. Nashville's City Paper reports that the purchase of the 13,000-square-foot, four bedroom, five-and-a-half bath home is Music City's biggest home sale of the year.

Other features of the Brooks' estate include floors milled from 100-year-old remnants of tobacco warehouses, a three-story wood and steel staircase, 28-foot ceilings in the central hall tower and a custom-designed wine cellar.

You can see a picture of the house here, but if you're planning to get a closer look, don't bother. It's in a gated community just south of town, and is so deep in the woods that none of it is visible, even from within the confines of those gates. Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman lived nearby after they were first married.