The Dixie Chicks Ron Wolfson/Getty Images
The Chicks despatched shockwaves by way of the leisure business after they publicly took a stand in opposition to George Bush — and altered the course of nation music ceaselessly.
Formerly The Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robinson have been on the high of their recreation within the early 2000s, having offered greater than 25 million data since their debut album, Wide Open Spaces, hit cabinets in 1998. By 2003, their sixth LP, Home, had damaged the a million mark, and their single, “Travelin’ Soldier,” skyrocketed to No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart.
Things rapidly modified for the Texas trio, nonetheless, after they flew abroad to London for a promotional live performance only one week earlier than President Bush confirmed the United States had entered the Iraq War. While on stage through the March 12, 2003, efficiency, Maines overtly revealed that the band disagreed with Bush’s selections.
“Just so you know,” she stated between songs, “We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
Sometimes America’s sweethearts go bitter. From Morgan Wallen to The Chicks, the largest names in nation music have been on the middle of some main controversies. Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer discovered themselves in scorching water within the early 2000s after sharing their private politics on a public stage. While performing throughout the […]
Two years after the assault on the World Trade Center, the nation music scene was embracing patriotism greater than ever — and the Chicks’ remarks have been perceived as radical as compared. The blowback was quick, and Maines rapidly launched an announcement in hopes of explaining herself.
“We’ve been overseas for several weeks and have been reading and following the news accounts of our governments’ position,” she wrote through the bands’ web site, per The Guardian. “The anti-American sentiment that has unfolded here is astounding. While we support our troops, there is nothing more frightening than the notion of going to war with Iraq and the prospect of all the innocent lives that will be lost.”
She continued, “I feel the President is ignoring the opinions of many in the US and alienating the rest of the world. My comments were made in frustration and one of the privileges of being an American is you are free to voice your own point of view.”
The rationalization did little within the second, and nation music stations all through the United States started pulling The Chicks’ music amid listener complaints and allegations of “Anti-American” rhetoric. In Kansas City, a celebration referred to as the “Chicken Toss” was allegedly by a radio station, the place followers would trash the band’s tapes, CDs and live performance tickets.
“Kansas City is definitely the heart of the Midwest,” Dale Carter, program director and morning host, KFKF Kansas City, informed Billboard in June 2022 whereas reflecting again on the second. “KFKF is a very patriotic radio station, and the calls came in immediately: ‘Get that off the air.’ At the time, there were nine titles of theirs that were testing for gold [in our rotation], so it took a large bite out of our library.”
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Mitch Mahan, who was program director at WIRK in West Palm Beach on the time, informed the outlet that their station was merely listening to “what listeners [wanted]” after they determined to tug The Chicks from the airwaves. “And they were telling us they don’t want the Dixie Chicks,” he claimed. “Any business where you’ve got a product that’s extremely popular, and then one day it’s making everybody ill, well, you pull that product from your shelves.”
“I’ve heard the conspiracy theories that we banned the Dixie Chicks,” he continued. “No, we didn’t. The audience just didn’t want to hear them anymore.”
Two days after Maines’ remarks made headlines, she publicly apologized to the president. “As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful,” she stated in an announcement shared through The Chicks’ web site. “I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect. We are currently in Europe and witnessing a huge anti-American sentiment as a result of the perceived rush to war. While war may remain a viable option, as a mother, I just want to see every possible alternative exhausted before children and American soldiers’ lives are lost. I love my country. I am a proud American.”
Despite the apology, the Chicks continued to obtain backlash from the nation music scene. Toby Keith, who launched “Courtesy of Red, White and Blue (the Angry American)” impressed by the victims of 9/11, displayed Maines’ photograph subsequent to a picture of Saddam Hussein at his concert events. The Chicks, for his or her half, responded by posing nude on the duvet of Entertainment Weekly whereas coated in graffiti phrases that included “big mouth” and “traitors.” Maines later sported a T-shirt with the letters “FUTK” on stage on the 2003 ACM Awards, with many believing the “TK” stood for Keith’s initials.
Although nation music pushed again in opposition to The Chicks, they offered virtually 900,000 tickets within the first weekend of their 2003 tour. Months later, they have been declared Billboard’s top-selling nation artist. Their seventh album, Taking The Long Way, was launched in 2006 and offered 526,000 copies in its first full week, incomes them 5 Grammys.
Since that fateful 2003 day, The Chicks have continued to be vocal about their political beliefs. In 2020, the trio sang the National Anthem through the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
“I think we were one of the first people to feel that ‘cancel culture’ and I think, you know, what we said — or, what I said — back then would not even be a thing today because it was really mild compared to what people say today,” Maines stated throughout a 2020 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. “On one hand, everyone has this forum where they can say whatever they want to say, but on the other hand this platform can move really quickly and ruin people’s lives.”
While talking with Allure later that yr, Maines recalled how shocked she and her bandmates have been that fellow nation musicians have been so fast to ostracize her and her bandmates on the time.
“When we started doing this music, I liked the people in our industry. We always waved that country flag when people would say it wasn’t cool. And then to see how quickly the entire industry turned on us,” she stated. “I wanted the audience to know who we were and what we were about. I do not like when artists get on their soapbox — it’s not what people are there for; they’re there to listen to your music — [but] the politics of this band is inseparable from the music.”
Country music’s greatest names haven’t been afraid to go head-to-head through the years, exchanging blows on social media, making up at awards reveals and extra. In 2015, a number of feminine artists got here collectively to fireside again at radio persona Keith Hill amid his feedback about why he performs extra male artists on the air. The controversy was dubbed “Tomato-gate.” […]
While the second stays notorious in nation music lore – Taylor Swift informed The Guardian in 2019 that the “No. 1 thing they drill into you as a country artist is…‘Don’t be like the Dixie Chicks!’” — the trio paved the way in which for extra progressive artists to talk their reality. In latest years, Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini and Maren Morris are only a few musicians to push for extra variety within the style.
“I don’t care if it’s awkward [with them] sitting down the row from you at the next awards show. Call them out!” Morris stated in February 2021 interview of nation artists’ duty to have powerful conversations with their friends. “If this is a family and you love it, call it out when it’s bad so you can rid the diseased part [and] we can move forward. All of us — people of color, LGBTQ+ and all — feel like we are a part of this family. This whole ‘We’re a family, we’re protecting our own’ [idea] is protecting white people. It’s not protecting Black people, and that’s the long and the short of it.”
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