In October of 2008, Brooks & Dunn released "Cowgirls Don't Cry" as the fourth (and final) single from their Cowboy Town album. Written by Ronnie Dunn and Terry McBride, the song -- which features Reba McEntire -- hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart ... though it wasn't originally envisioned as a collaboration between Kix Brooks, Dunn and McEntire. Below, Dunn shares how the hit came to be.

I saw it -- the title -- on a T-shirt at the Iowa State Fair. Terry McBride and I were on the bus, and I started talking about it ... and we started talking about Reba and hearing her talk about how she grew up, how rough she thought her dad was on her in her rodeo days. We wrote it and sent the lyrics to her that night.

She e-mailed me back about every other week going, "Are you gonna cut that song? 'Cause if not, I am!" So we finally called a truce, and [did] it together.

This story was originally written by Linda Laird, and revised by Angela Stefano.

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