Before the duo's foundation, Rich was bass guitarist in the country band Lonestar, while Kenny was a solo artist for Hollywood Records.

[5] Rich played bass guitar in the band and alternated with Richie McDonald on lead vocals; he also co-wrote their singles "Come Cryin' to Me" and "Say When".

[7] The two then founded the MuzikMafia (an abbreviation for Musically Artistic Friends in Alliance),[16] a roundtable aggregation of singer-songwriters including Cowboy Troy, James Otto, Gretchen Wilson and Shannon Lawson.

[1][22] After McBride cut this song, manager Marc Oswald suggested that Rich and Big Kenny begin recording as a duo.

[27] Big & Rich debuted their second single, "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)", at that year's Academy of Country Music awards.

[28] For this song, Big & Rich employed Deaton-Flanigen Productions, a music video directing duo composed of Robert Deaton and George Flanigen IV.

[17] Big & Rich also released a special Independence Day single titled "Our America", with guest vocals from Wilson and Cowboy Troy, which charted for two weeks and peaked at number 44.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it "wilder and stranger than most contemporary country albums of 2004,"[35] and Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly said that "the disc really flies when Big & Rich just honor the straight-up rowdiness of Bocephus.

"[36] Country Weekly also gave a positive review, praising the variety of musical influences and saying that all of the songs worked "ridiculously well.

[1] The first single, "Comin' to Your City" received a similar reaction as "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" had a year earlier, although rather than poker, ESPN utilized an altered version of the song as the opening theme for its Saturday program College GameDay.

In early 2007, the duo released "Lost in This Moment", which was the lead-off single to their third album, Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace.

[1] "Lost in This Moment" became Big & Rich's only Number One single, spending two weeks at the top of the country music charts.

[17] The song also began receiving airplay on adult contemporary radio and became their first chart entry for that format, reaching number 12.

[17] Another cut from this album, a cover of AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long," also charted at number 59 as a non-single two months before the release of the title track.

Later in the same year, Big Kenny released The Quiet Times of a Rock and Roll Farm Boy via his own Glotown label, and charted at number 34 with the single "Long After I'm Gone".

[46][47] In 2012, Big & Rich announced that they would release their fourth studio album, Hillbilly Jedi, led by the single "That's Why I Pray".

[50] Released on September 18, 2012, the album produced two more singles, "Party Like Cowboyz" and "Cheat on You," both of which failed to make Top 40.

[55] The duo said that their decision to start their own label was the result of Warner Bros. Nashville's schedule not allowing for Gravity to be released until 2015 at the earliest.

Of the decision to form their own label, Kenny said that "it’s the kind of thing we believed in ten years ago as the Musik Mafia.

The song was previously recorded by McGraw on his album Damn Country Music, and his version featured them on backing vocals.

Legend played the piano and sang a verse during the duo's performance of "Lost in This Moment" at the 2007 ACM Awards.

"[58] Big & Rich also co-wrote several songs and provided background vocals on several cuts from Cowboy Troy's two Warner Bros. releases: 2005's Loco Motive and 2007's Black in the Saddle.

In 2006, the Hank Williams, Jr. song "That's How They Do It in Dixie" was released, a single to which Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson and Van Zant contributed guest vocals.

He also co-wrote singles for Jason Aldean ("Hicktown", "Amarillo Sky", "Johnny Cash"), Wynonna Judd ("Attitude"), Faith Hill ("Mississippi Girl", "Like We Never Loved at All", "Sunshine and Summertime") and Keith Anderson ("Pickin' Wildflowers").

Big Kenny wrote Tim McGraw's "Last Dollar (Fly Away)", which went to number one in 2007, and co-wrote Wilson's "Here for the Party" with Rich.

Rich has also produced for Wilson, Cowboy Troy, James Otto, Shannon Brown, Jewel, and the JaneDear girls.

[59] The duo also contributed to Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur with a cover of John Lennon's "Nobody Told Me" in 2007.