people - country gets crazy

 IN THE SHADOWS
"This is the best room in the world," Ronnie Dunn tells PEOPLE of playing The
Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. "I've been raving about the
acoustics on stage. I've never heard a better stage sound in my life." And good
thing: Dunn, along with singing partner Kix Brooks and pal Reba McEntire, just
kicked off a residency at the Sin City venue, inviting PEOPLE to come to Friday
night's opening show.
WALK THIS WAY
McEntire gets ready to hit the stage. "We sing together, we have costume
changes," she reveals of the performance. "I didn't want it to be me 30 minutes,
them 30 minutes. I want to sing with them. I want them singing with me. It's just a
lot more fun. I wanted to have fun singing with them."
GREEN ROOM GANG
Brooks and Dunn hang with Kix's son Eric and Ronnie's daughter Haley
backstage. "At this point in our career to have some consistency, it really takes a
load off," Brooks tells PEOPLE.
GOOD GREET
Of having their faces plastered all over the Vegas strip, McEntire says, "I love it. I
love to see it. Artists are usually very insecure people and when you see
something like that it makes you feel good. You know that you're doing
something right and people are interested."
FAMILY AFFAIR
The singer poses with her husband, Narvel Blackstock (left) and son Shelby. "It's
a billion times better than anything I could have thought of," she says of the
show. "It's really that good."
STORY TELLERS
"There was never a rift," Dunn, pictured with Brooks and manager Clarence
Spalding, says of rumors he and Brooks were at odds when they split in 2009.
"We did it because we'd been doing it for over 20 years and felt like we'd
accomplished everything that we could. We're getting to a point where we were
comfortable enough to hang out at home for a while and I think the best way to
go about that was compromise. We'd been going all of the time."
GOING GLAM
Decked out in her fringed top and knee-high boots, McEntire gets one last touchup from hair and makeup stylist Brett Freedman.
LETTER PERFECT
Flowers and light-up letters adorn McEntire's dressing room. The Colosseum was
previously home to Céline Dion, who announced in August that she needed to
postpone her shows in order to focus on helping her husband, René Angélil, who
is undergoing treatment for throat cancer.
ANOTHER OP'NIN, ANOTHER SHOW
Of opening night, McEntire says, "The crowd seemed really into it. We had a
blast and we're tightening up a little bit."
STAGE RIGHT
"We ran out of gas," Brooks says of Brooks & Dunn's disappearance from the
spotlight. But with the opportunity to do a Vegas residency, "[we] thought, gosh, if
we can come out here and golf and eat some great dinners in one of the greatest
venues in the world, then yeah … and we got our favorite referee." (Reba, of
course!)
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
"It's nice to have the support," Brooks says of the stars' fans. "We've all done
shows where you don't see marketing and most of these shows looks like they're
going to sell out. The fact that they are still out there supporting us, they're
obviously proud that we're here and we're proud to be here."
READY FOR ANYTHING
"For the next three weeks we need to be on our games," Brooks says. "There are
people coming in for this. We gotta give it to them."