12 years ago Natalie Maines trashed George W. And she'd do it again.

[progressoid]

12 years ago, Natalie Maines and the Dixie Chicks had everything: Brains, beauty, talent, and a meteoric rise to stardom. Then, on March 10, 2003, Maines and the sisters who founded the band — Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison — crashed and burned. Why? Because of what fans applaud as Maines’ bold candor, and what former fans more likely call Maines not shutting her big, fat mouth.

History.Com explains it all started when the Dixie Chicks flew across the pond for a tour and Maines felt shocked by how strongly opposed the rest of the world was to George W. Bush and the upcoming war in Iraq. Apparently, folks in the European Union don’t watch Fox News. At a show in London, Maines declared while onstage:

“Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence. And we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.”

Of course, when word got to back to the U.S., the Dixie Chicks’ country fans didn’t like it one bit. CNN reports the backlash came fast and hard.

It didn’t matter that the evidence to invade Iraq was questionable or that Maines later apologized. The damage was done, and one of the most popular acts in the country became its most hated. Its music was banned from radio, CDs were trashed by bulldozers, and one band member’s home was vandalized.

...

MAINES HAS NO REGRETS

So, does Maines have any regrets about calling out George W. Bush over the expensive, destructive war he waged on false pretenses? Apparently not. Country Music Nation reports that on March 10 — the 12th anniversary of Maines’ truth bomb — she tweeted this:



This comes as no surprise to anyone who read Maines’ 2013 interview with Rolling Stone, in which she expressed more disgust with her former country fans than regret for losing them.

“I always thought they accepted us in spite of the fact that we were different. It shocked me and kind of grossed me out that people thought I would be a conservative right-winger, that I’d be a redneck. But at that time, people didn’t ask us things like, ‘What do you think of gay marriage?’ If they had, they would have learned how liberal I was. But I was so confused by who people thought I was and what I had been putting out there.”

http://reverbpress.com/discovery/living/entertainment/music/dixie-chick-torched-career-trashed-george-w-bush-shed-video/

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[Ineeda]

1. I was so proud of her (them.)

In support, I immediately bought all their CD's that I didn't have already. (Not a huge country fan, but I really liked their stuff.) "Not Ready to Make Nice" remains one of my favorites.

[bigbrother05]

2. k&r - for simply speaking your mind

[samsingh]

3. and i still Love and admire the Dixie Chicks

FU toby keith

[samsingh]

4. and we are still embarrassed by george shrub bush - the imbecile

[father founding]

5. being a visionary is hard.

She was proven right of course, I think the idiots who abandoned them are sorry and ashamed now.

[Chakab]

6. Looking back at the treatment that she got is even more infuriating now in the context of present

day US politics.

What she said was so unbelievably tame compared to what Obama and his family are subjected to on a daily basis.