Natalie Maines Doesn't Regret Slamming George W. Bush, Never Liked Country Music

**Fly_On_TheWall** · April 26th, 2013, 12:00 PM

I always was and always will be a Dixie Chick fan. She's mouthy but she always was. The chicks are at a country music fest in Calgary,Canada this summer. I'd love to go.
Sad that she was crucified for her using her first amendment right.

**gas_chick** · April 26th, 2013, 12:14 PM

I don't listen to her music but I like her. She's a fellow Stern fan!

**olivia** · April 26th, 2013, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by sputnik

Thanks for proving my point about country circles. If speaking out against bush in 2003 sealed her bad image in country music circles, that tells me everything I need to know about them and, if anything, she should take it as the world's biggest compliment that she was shunned by them.

Maines isn't the first county artist to be shunned by Nashville and the ugly country music fans. There is so much damn talent in the world of country music, maybe more than in any other US musical form, and it's so broad (my husband would argue Hip Hop and Rap beat country by miles. Interesting dinner discussions we have.)

Anyway, I love country and hate the fans and Nashville. Johnny Cash (if he were alive) could teach Maines and thing or two about finding an audience outside mainstream country. Or Steve Earle. She's not going to pull this off alone, though. Her voice is amazing but her song writing is poor.

**greysfang** · April 26th, 2013, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by NoNoRehab

The Bush kerfuffle just sealed her bad image in country music circles. Every hardcore country music fan I knew already considered Natalie as the product of nepotism who ruined the Chicks' sound. There was a real reaction against the perception that Natalie stepped in at the last minute and started hogging the spotlight away from the Erwin sisters, who are and always will be the true talent in the band.

Anyway, I'm sure her she'll love country music again when her pop album fails.

You're joking right? The sisters are very musically talented, but Natalie has an amazing voice. To insinuate that she isn't talented is patently ridiculous.

**shedevilang** · April 26th, 2013, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by NoNoRehab

The Bush kerfuffle just sealed her bad image in country music circles. Every hardcore country music fan I knew already considered Natalie as the product of nepotism who ruined the Chicks' sound. There was a real reaction against the perception that Natalie stepped in at the last minute and started hogging the spotlight away from the Erwin sisters, who are and always will be the true talent in the band.

Anyway, I'm sure her she'll love country music again when her pop album fails.

Yea that's why the Dixie Chicks were so damn popular before she started singing with them, oh wait that's right they weren't.
they are all talented but it was the combination of all 3 of them that made them great

Originally Posted by greysfang

You're joking right? The sisters are very musically talented, but Natalie has an amazing voice. To insinuate that she isn't talented is patently ridiculous.

vouch

**Karistiona** · April 26th, 2013, 04:35 PM

Team Natalie, she is brilliant and talented and has had to put up with some amount of bullshit for speaking her mind. So much for the much-touted free speech.

**NoNoRehab** · April 26th, 2013, 08:01 PM

I think she's got a terrible voice. I'd like some of the DC songs if someone else sang them. She sounds like a foghorn to me and is one of those who thinks being loud means being good.

I remember I had to rush and mute the TV when her terrible cover of God Only Knows played on the Big Love finale.

**greysfang** · April 26th, 2013, 08:22 PM

So you've listened to what, two or three songs?

**Novice** · April 27th, 2013, 03:35 AM

Well the Dixie Chicks are internationally famous & get radio play across the world while a lot of these other country "stars" are only heard of in the US. I think that is validation.

**Karistiona** · April 27th, 2013, 03:55 AM

Originally Posted by NoNoRehab

I think she's got a terrible voice. I'd like some of the DC songs if someone else sang them. She sounds like a foghorn to me and is one of those who thinks being loud means being good.

I remember I had to rush and mute the TV when her terrible cover of God Only Knows played on the Big Love finale.

Overdramatic much?

**Mel1973** · April 29th, 2013, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by PinkSharpie

She absolutely has that right and the country music fans absolutely had the right to choose not to listen to their music because they didn't agree. I liked the Dixie Chicks and I still listen to some of their older stuff. It just seemed that after the whole mess they didn't let it go either and when they released "I'm Not Ready To Make Nice" they pretty much sealed their country music fate. It's not like they were blackballed forever and obviously she is releasing non-country music so the entire industry wasn't against them. The sisters have been playing country music with another band and, as far as I know, do just fine.

Oh come on! The country music market was NEVER going to forgive and forget. When Natalie made that comment, their fate was sealed. They absolutely WOULD have been blackballed forever... unless, of course they got on their knees and kissed ass and ate shit - which also was NOT going to happen. Natalie was NOT wrong. Even all those fans who hated them at the time KNOWS that NOW. It took that part of the world a little longer to get there, but it is a fact - she was right.

Originally Posted by Bombshell

I'll listen to whatever she puts out. I like her music, regardless. And "Not Ready To Make Nice" is one of my favorite songs. Leaving my personal politics out of it, like Slushie, I find that whole mess a total cock up. I really enjoy The Dixie Chicks, and have missed them.

agreed.

Originally Posted by rphuman

So do lots of people. It doesn't make it right but people know that those are people on the edge anyways. But yes they are snubbed by country radio but I stand by the thought that there is more to the picture than that one incident. They are very talented people and could have been embraced outside of country radio. And I don't believe for a second that it's by choice that they haven't been doing more mainstream music since. A nasty attitude toward fans doesn't get you very far.

I call bullshit on that statement. The Dixie Chicks won grammys AFTER that incident - whether or not country music embraces them is totally beside the point. They haven't had a nasty attitude towards their fans. They are honest (maybe too honest) and open (maybe too open) and they represent what a lot of people think about Bush and that goddamned war.

Originally Posted by NoNoRehab

The Bush kerfuffle just sealed her bad image in country music circles. Every hardcore country music fan I knew already considered Natalie as the product of nepotism who ruined the Chicks' sound. There was a real reaction against the perception that Natalie stepped in at the last minute and started hogging the spotlight away from the Erwin sisters, who are and always will be the true talent in the band.

Anyway, I'm sure her she'll love country music again when her pop album fails.

Those Erwin girls are the one who kicked out the other member - not Natalie. Yes, Natalie's father is in the music industry and made the introduction, but Martie and Emily are the ones who made the decision to pick Natalie because she was better (vocally) than Laura Lynch. They wanted to get away from the hokey shit they had done with Laura. Also, when they were with Laura, I believe they were the Dixie Chickens, not Chicks. They toured the bluegrass circuit and small venues for 6 years without attracting a label. That didn't have jack shit to do with Natalie - Natalie, Martie & Emily were just the right combination to attract the attention they needed.

Originally Posted by gas_chick

I don't listen to her music but I like her. She's a fellow Stern fan!

Damn straight - she's a superfan!

Originally Posted by greysfang

You're joking right? The sisters are very musically talented, but Natalie has an amazing voice. To insinuate that she isn't talented is patently ridiculous.

no shit!

Originally Posted by Novice

Well the Dixie Chicks are internationally famous & get radio play across the world while a lot of these other country "stars" are only heard of in the US. I think that is validation.

exactly. they won FIVE grammys in 2007 - including album of the year and single of the year... like it or not, "Not Ready to Make Nice" is the Chicks BIGGEST US hit...

**Novice** · April 29th, 2013, 07:16 AM

"During a London concert ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Maines said, "we don't want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States [George W. Bush] is from Texas".^[1] The positive reaction to this statement from the British audience contrasted with the boycotts that ensued in the U.S., where the band was assaulted by talk-show conservatives,^[2] while their albums were discarded in public protest.^[2]
As of 2012, the Dixie Chicks had won 13 Grammy Awards, including five in 2007 for Taking the Long Way—which received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year—and "Not Ready to Make Nice", a single from that album. By February 2013, with 30.5 million certified albums sold,^[3] and sales of 27 million albums in the U.S. alone, they had become the top selling all-female band, and biggest selling country group in the U.S. during the Nielsen SoundScan era.^[4]"

I'd say they're doing just fine, in the US included.... But not only were they right about Bush, but his actions have put US citizens at risk both abroad & in the US.

**sluce** · April 29th, 2013, 09:48 AM

When the shit hit the fan our local country station banned their music. A marine, who was in Iraq, called the station and blasted them. I actually was crying in the car as I listened to him blast the DJs and tell them that he disagreed with what Natalie was saying but the he was over there, risking his life, so she could have the right to speak her mind. He told them that if they banned the Chicks he would ban would country music from his life. The DJ then said he agreed that the ban was wrong but said that they were owned by Clear Channel and were forbidden from playing the Chicks. Some local car dealership then stepped in and pulled their advertising. It was years before they played the Chicks but they do now.

The saddest thing to me is that Natalie was right and paid a huge price. Meanwhile Toby Keith got even more popular because he sang, "I'll put a boot in your ass..."