Fact #89867
When:
Short story:
At a live show in London, England, UK, Europe, Natalie Maines of Texan country-rock trio The Dixie Chicks triggers a major poltical incident when she declares the band's opposition to the imminent invasion of Iraq and states, "Just so you know, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas."
Full article:
DIXIE CHICKS DECLARE WAR ON PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH
Quotes researched, sourced and edited by Johnny Black. This feature first appeared in Country magazine in January 2018
On the eve of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, country superstar trio The Dixie Chicks played at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. During the show, Natalie Maines of the Texas-based Chicks expressed her anger at American involvement in the invasion. Her words brought a ripple of applause in London, but when they were reported in America, they triggered a furious firestorm which threatened to stop not only the band’s career but Maines’ life dead in its tracks.
2003, March 10 : The Dixie Chicks open their Top Of The World tour with a show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London.
Betty Clarke (reviewer, The Guardian) : Back then, the Dixie Chicks were already country music's most controversial stars. They'd just won four Grammy awards and the disapproval of the country establishment, who didn't approve of their feisty songs, their provocative style or the fact they were selling huge numbers of progressive bluegrass records to pop kids.
Martie Maguire (Dixie Chicks) : Before we went on that night we talked about how silly we felt having to go out and entertain when our hearts were so heavy with what was about to happen.
Natalie Maines (Dixie Chicks) : It felt pretty trite to me to be doing a show on what was supposed to be the eve before war, and not say anything about it. At that stage too everyone in Europe, or everyone outside of the U.S., talked about the U.S. like we all thought one way. So it was important for me to let them know that you can't group us all into one.
Betty Clarke : They don't know when to stop. "Just so you know," says singer Natalie Maines, "we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." It gets the audience cheering - at a time when country stars are rushing to release pro-war anthems, this is practically punk rock.
Richard Wootton (publicist) : I was doing radio for the band, so I was at the gig. The audience cheered as I recall, but they cheered lots of things that night and there were bigger cheers for favourite songs. People who went to concerts at that time tended to be opposed to the war and it was not uncommon for artists to say something, so it was not in any way unusual to British ears. But the Chicks were mainstream country stars from Texas and no-one else in the format had done it.
Betty Clarke : This was different. America had just declared war on Iraq and the Dixie Chicks were part of the ultra-conservative country community.
Emily Robison (Dixie Chicks) : Everybody talks about how this war was over quickly and not that many people died. Tell that to the parents of people coming home in body bags.
Natalie's comment came from frustration that we all shared - we were apparently days away from war and still left with a lot of questions.
Richard Wootton : Only one paper considered the comment important enough to mention - Betty Clarke in The Guardian.
Steve Earle : I actually played Shepherds Bush Empire ten days after and I had on a t-shirt that said F**k the War and I think I may have made the fifth page of The Guardian or something. I'm sort of a well-known pinko, so people didn't bat an eye when I did it, When Natalie did it, that shows you how much this war offended some people in my country. She was reacting as a citizen and a mother and of course she sells a lot more records than I do - that bothered a lot of people.
2003, March 12 : Clear Channel, owner of 1,200 American radio stations and co-funders of George Bush's election campaign, bans Dixie Chicks records, "out of respect for our troops and our listeners". With other stations also dropping Dixie Chicks tracks from their playlists, Natalie Maines makes a website posting.
Natalie Maines : I feel the President is ignoring the opinions of many in the U.S. 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.
2003, March 14 : With the backlash escalating, Natalie Maines issues a public apology to George W. Bush.
Natalie Maines : As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. 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.
Emmylou Harris : I wish they hadn’t given that apology. I couldn’t watch that. If we lose our ability to speak our minds as Americans, then we have lost America.
2003, March 15 : KRMD Radio in Bossier City, Louisiana, holds a Chicks Bash inviting listeners to bring Dixie Chicks records and destroy them. One listener turns up with a 33,000lb tractor and crushes piles of offending Dixie Chicks CDs.
Roseanne Cash : I'm astonished and appalled at the way she (Natalie Maines of Dixie Chicks) has been treated in the press.
It is the people who scream loudest about America and freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for people with a differing point of view.
She was just expressing a feeling and an opinion, you know. She wasn't trying to incite a riot. I really cannot believe the backlash. It is as if we have not learnt anything from history. It is like McCarthyism all over again.
Merle Haggard : It disturbs me that this country is so seriously divided over this war. I don't think since the Civil War have we been so divided about something. Since when is it new for grandma to be against war? These girls were against war, and only in today's times would we have enough nerve to jump on somebody like that. What's new about entertainers being against war? They've always campaigned against war.
2003, April 5 : The Dixie Chicks' cover of the Fleetwood Mac song Landslide falls sharply from No.10 down to 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single week. It will drop entirely out of the chart one week later.
Natalie Maines : I always thought they (the audience) 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.
Steve Earle : Their livelihood was actually threatened - and we're not talking about an act that normally deals in politics. They were just being citizens.
2003, April 24 : the Dixie Chicks launch a publicity campaign to explain their position and their fears, and President Bush comments on the incident in a tv interview with Tom Brokaw.
George Bush : The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say ... they shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out ... Freedom is a two-way street ... I don't really care what the Dixie Chicks said. I want to do what I think is right for the American people, and if some singers or Hollywood stars feel like speaking out, that's fine. That's the great thing about America.
2003, May 1 : The Dixie Chicks begin the American leg of their tour in Greenville, South Carolina, against a background of insults calling them not just traitors and big mouths but Dixie Sluts and Saddam’s Angels. Trash has been dumped outside the home of Emily Robison, and Maines now needs 24-hour security outside her home.
Emily Robison: I'm concerned about my safety. I'm concerned about my safety for my family. When you're getting death threats... at our concerts this year, we have to have metal detectors, and to me that's just crazy. But we have to take precautions because this thing has gotten so out of control.
Natalie Maines : I was afraid to go places, afraid of what people were thinking about me.
Natalie Maines : We have video footage of this lady at one of the shows protesting, holding her 2-year-old son. And I was just like, that's it right there. That's the moment that it's taught. She just taught her two-year-old how to hate. And that broke my heart.
2003, May 2 : Dixie Chicks appear on the cover of Entertainment Weekly - naked except for the worst of the recent insults written on their bodies.
Martie Maguire : It deserved a strong response from us and we felt it had to be in your face. The magazine wanted us standing in front of the American flag in our jeans and smiling for the cover. And we thought no. We had to hit them over the head with it and expose the absurdity of the things we were being called. It's made me realise our country has not progressed as far as I thought we had. If this can happen to three white girls playing country music...
Emily Robison : They’ve set this tone that they're not to be questioned and if you do then you are unpatriotic. That's somehow gotten into the American psyche and that's scary. If you can't question your government then you are just mindless followers.
Natalie Maines : We have nothing but support for the troops. I think of those little kids over there, just laying in their beds listening [to the planes] ... I don't hate people who are for the war.
2003, May 6 : Colorado radio station KKCS suspends two of its disc jockeys for playing music by the Dixie Chicks.
Natalie Maines : When I was going through it, I really didn't feel like it was affecting me. I was in fight mode and battle mode, and I felt, you know, I was right, and free to say what I want to say.
2003, May 21 : At the Academy of Country Music awards ceremony in Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, there are boos when the band's nomination for Entertainer of the Year award is announced. However, the broadcast's host, Vince Gill, reminds the audience that everyone is entitled to freedom of speech. The academy gives the award to ultra-right performer Toby Keith, who had been engaged in a public feud with Maines ever since she denounced his number one hit, Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American), as "ignorant" the year before. At the event, Maines wears a T-shirt with the letters "FUTK" on the front. A spokesperson for the Dixie Chicks states that the acronym stands for "Friends United in Truth and Kindness", but many, including awards host Gill, take it to be a shot at Keith ("Fuck You Toby Keith").
2003, July 6 : Specific death threats against Maines in Dallas lead to a police escort to their show at the American Airlines Center, and from the show directly to the airport.
Emily Robison : One specific death threat on Natalie had a time, had a place, had a weapon. I mean, everything. … ‘You will be shot dead at your show in Dallas.’
Natalie Maines : It was definitely scary because it seemed so … it wasn’t just somebody wanting to write a hate letter. It was somebody who obviously thought they had a plan.
2003, July 25 : Merle Haggard speaks out on behalf of the Dixie Chicks.
Marie Haggard : I don't even know the Dixie Chicks, but I find it an insult for all the men and women who fought and died in past wars when almost the majority of America jumped down their throats for voicing an opinion. It was like a verbal witch-hunt and lynching.
Rick Rubin (record producer) : After the Incident everyone started taking what they said seriously. To take a band that's popular not for that reason and give them that power seemed very exciting.
It's the biggest thing that's ever happened to them, and it rattled them and it changed them. The pain of it is really lingering.
2004, Oct 1 : Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, first of several gigs 2004's anti-Bush Vote For Change Tour, which also featured Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M.
Bruce Springsteen (website posting) : To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American.
Martie Maguire : We don't feel a part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home anymore. Instead, we won three Grammys against much stronger competition. So we now consider ourselves part of the big rock 'n' roll family.
2006, March 16 : the Dixie Chicks release the single Not Ready To Make Nice, affirming their ongoing belief in their stance.
Emily Robison : The stakes were definitely higher on that song. We knew it was special because it was so autobiographical, and we had to get it right. And once we had that song done, it freed us up to do the rest of the album without that burden.
Natalie Maines : I apologized for disrespecting the office of the President, but I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever.
June 15 2006 : When the band returns to Shepherd's Bush Empire, their merchandise includes T-shirts bearing the legend: 'The Only Bush we Trust is Shepherd's Bush'.
Emily Robison : A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do. ... A lot of pandering started going on, and you'd see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism.
Natalie Maines commented : The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism. Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country ... I don't see why people care about patriotism.
2007, February 11 : The Dixie Chicks win no less than five Grammy Awards at The Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Natalie Maines : I’m ready to make nice. I think people are using their freedom of speech with all of these awards.
Natalie Maines : I’m really proud of what went down. I spoke up for what I believe - that’s what art is about and what musicians should be about. And if I’d known anybody was listening, I would have said something to really make a mark.
Emily Strayer : It feels like another lifetime to me, it doesn’t even feel real - our country’s changed, we’ve changed, the fans definitely have.
Natalie Maines : I look at how much more polarized and intolerant people have become now, with social media, opinions all start becoming noise, but at that point, people weren’t really supposed to have an opinion.
I hate politics. It’s become an industry. It sickens me.
----------------------------------------------------------
SOURCES :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks#2003.E2.80.9305:_Controversy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks:_Shut_Up_and_Sing
Der Spiegel : Sep 2003 Martie Maguire comments
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing - 2006 tv documentary
Daily Telegraph, June 14, 2006, interview with Adam Sweeting.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/natalie-maines-a-dixie-chick-declares-war-on-nashville-20130530 June 6, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/arts/music/21pare.html May 21, 2006
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/aug/22/1
Interview on US tv show 60 Minutes, May 2006
Tweet this Fact
Quotes researched, sourced and edited by Johnny Black. This feature first appeared in Country magazine in January 2018
On the eve of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, country superstar trio The Dixie Chicks played at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. During the show, Natalie Maines of the Texas-based Chicks expressed her anger at American involvement in the invasion. Her words brought a ripple of applause in London, but when they were reported in America, they triggered a furious firestorm which threatened to stop not only the band’s career but Maines’ life dead in its tracks.
2003, March 10 : The Dixie Chicks open their Top Of The World tour with a show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London.
Betty Clarke (reviewer, The Guardian) : Back then, the Dixie Chicks were already country music's most controversial stars. They'd just won four Grammy awards and the disapproval of the country establishment, who didn't approve of their feisty songs, their provocative style or the fact they were selling huge numbers of progressive bluegrass records to pop kids.
Martie Maguire (Dixie Chicks) : Before we went on that night we talked about how silly we felt having to go out and entertain when our hearts were so heavy with what was about to happen.
Natalie Maines (Dixie Chicks) : It felt pretty trite to me to be doing a show on what was supposed to be the eve before war, and not say anything about it. At that stage too everyone in Europe, or everyone outside of the U.S., talked about the U.S. like we all thought one way. So it was important for me to let them know that you can't group us all into one.
Betty Clarke : They don't know when to stop. "Just so you know," says singer Natalie Maines, "we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." It gets the audience cheering - at a time when country stars are rushing to release pro-war anthems, this is practically punk rock.
Richard Wootton (publicist) : I was doing radio for the band, so I was at the gig. The audience cheered as I recall, but they cheered lots of things that night and there were bigger cheers for favourite songs. People who went to concerts at that time tended to be opposed to the war and it was not uncommon for artists to say something, so it was not in any way unusual to British ears. But the Chicks were mainstream country stars from Texas and no-one else in the format had done it.
Betty Clarke : This was different. America had just declared war on Iraq and the Dixie Chicks were part of the ultra-conservative country community.
Emily Robison (Dixie Chicks) : Everybody talks about how this war was over quickly and not that many people died. Tell that to the parents of people coming home in body bags.
Natalie's comment came from frustration that we all shared - we were apparently days away from war and still left with a lot of questions.
Richard Wootton : Only one paper considered the comment important enough to mention - Betty Clarke in The Guardian.
Steve Earle : I actually played Shepherds Bush Empire ten days after and I had on a t-shirt that said F**k the War and I think I may have made the fifth page of The Guardian or something. I'm sort of a well-known pinko, so people didn't bat an eye when I did it, When Natalie did it, that shows you how much this war offended some people in my country. She was reacting as a citizen and a mother and of course she sells a lot more records than I do - that bothered a lot of people.
2003, March 12 : Clear Channel, owner of 1,200 American radio stations and co-funders of George Bush's election campaign, bans Dixie Chicks records, "out of respect for our troops and our listeners". With other stations also dropping Dixie Chicks tracks from their playlists, Natalie Maines makes a website posting.
Natalie Maines : I feel the President is ignoring the opinions of many in the U.S. 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.
2003, March 14 : With the backlash escalating, Natalie Maines issues a public apology to George W. Bush.
Natalie Maines : As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. 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.
Emmylou Harris : I wish they hadn’t given that apology. I couldn’t watch that. If we lose our ability to speak our minds as Americans, then we have lost America.
2003, March 15 : KRMD Radio in Bossier City, Louisiana, holds a Chicks Bash inviting listeners to bring Dixie Chicks records and destroy them. One listener turns up with a 33,000lb tractor and crushes piles of offending Dixie Chicks CDs.
Roseanne Cash : I'm astonished and appalled at the way she (Natalie Maines of Dixie Chicks) has been treated in the press.
It is the people who scream loudest about America and freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for people with a differing point of view.
She was just expressing a feeling and an opinion, you know. She wasn't trying to incite a riot. I really cannot believe the backlash. It is as if we have not learnt anything from history. It is like McCarthyism all over again.
Merle Haggard : It disturbs me that this country is so seriously divided over this war. I don't think since the Civil War have we been so divided about something. Since when is it new for grandma to be against war? These girls were against war, and only in today's times would we have enough nerve to jump on somebody like that. What's new about entertainers being against war? They've always campaigned against war.
2003, April 5 : The Dixie Chicks' cover of the Fleetwood Mac song Landslide falls sharply from No.10 down to 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single week. It will drop entirely out of the chart one week later.
Natalie Maines : I always thought they (the audience) 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.
Steve Earle : Their livelihood was actually threatened - and we're not talking about an act that normally deals in politics. They were just being citizens.
2003, April 24 : the Dixie Chicks launch a publicity campaign to explain their position and their fears, and President Bush comments on the incident in a tv interview with Tom Brokaw.
George Bush : The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say ... they shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out ... Freedom is a two-way street ... I don't really care what the Dixie Chicks said. I want to do what I think is right for the American people, and if some singers or Hollywood stars feel like speaking out, that's fine. That's the great thing about America.
2003, May 1 : The Dixie Chicks begin the American leg of their tour in Greenville, South Carolina, against a background of insults calling them not just traitors and big mouths but Dixie Sluts and Saddam’s Angels. Trash has been dumped outside the home of Emily Robison, and Maines now needs 24-hour security outside her home.
Emily Robison: I'm concerned about my safety. I'm concerned about my safety for my family. When you're getting death threats... at our concerts this year, we have to have metal detectors, and to me that's just crazy. But we have to take precautions because this thing has gotten so out of control.
Natalie Maines : I was afraid to go places, afraid of what people were thinking about me.
Natalie Maines : We have video footage of this lady at one of the shows protesting, holding her 2-year-old son. And I was just like, that's it right there. That's the moment that it's taught. She just taught her two-year-old how to hate. And that broke my heart.
2003, May 2 : Dixie Chicks appear on the cover of Entertainment Weekly - naked except for the worst of the recent insults written on their bodies.
Martie Maguire : It deserved a strong response from us and we felt it had to be in your face. The magazine wanted us standing in front of the American flag in our jeans and smiling for the cover. And we thought no. We had to hit them over the head with it and expose the absurdity of the things we were being called. It's made me realise our country has not progressed as far as I thought we had. If this can happen to three white girls playing country music...
Emily Robison : They’ve set this tone that they're not to be questioned and if you do then you are unpatriotic. That's somehow gotten into the American psyche and that's scary. If you can't question your government then you are just mindless followers.
Natalie Maines : We have nothing but support for the troops. I think of those little kids over there, just laying in their beds listening [to the planes] ... I don't hate people who are for the war.
2003, May 6 : Colorado radio station KKCS suspends two of its disc jockeys for playing music by the Dixie Chicks.
Natalie Maines : When I was going through it, I really didn't feel like it was affecting me. I was in fight mode and battle mode, and I felt, you know, I was right, and free to say what I want to say.
2003, May 21 : At the Academy of Country Music awards ceremony in Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, there are boos when the band's nomination for Entertainer of the Year award is announced. However, the broadcast's host, Vince Gill, reminds the audience that everyone is entitled to freedom of speech. The academy gives the award to ultra-right performer Toby Keith, who had been engaged in a public feud with Maines ever since she denounced his number one hit, Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American), as "ignorant" the year before. At the event, Maines wears a T-shirt with the letters "FUTK" on the front. A spokesperson for the Dixie Chicks states that the acronym stands for "Friends United in Truth and Kindness", but many, including awards host Gill, take it to be a shot at Keith ("Fuck You Toby Keith").
2003, July 6 : Specific death threats against Maines in Dallas lead to a police escort to their show at the American Airlines Center, and from the show directly to the airport.
Emily Robison : One specific death threat on Natalie had a time, had a place, had a weapon. I mean, everything. … ‘You will be shot dead at your show in Dallas.’
Natalie Maines : It was definitely scary because it seemed so … it wasn’t just somebody wanting to write a hate letter. It was somebody who obviously thought they had a plan.
2003, July 25 : Merle Haggard speaks out on behalf of the Dixie Chicks.
Marie Haggard : I don't even know the Dixie Chicks, but I find it an insult for all the men and women who fought and died in past wars when almost the majority of America jumped down their throats for voicing an opinion. It was like a verbal witch-hunt and lynching.
Rick Rubin (record producer) : After the Incident everyone started taking what they said seriously. To take a band that's popular not for that reason and give them that power seemed very exciting.
It's the biggest thing that's ever happened to them, and it rattled them and it changed them. The pain of it is really lingering.
2004, Oct 1 : Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, first of several gigs 2004's anti-Bush Vote For Change Tour, which also featured Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M.
Bruce Springsteen (website posting) : To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American.
Martie Maguire : We don't feel a part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home anymore. Instead, we won three Grammys against much stronger competition. So we now consider ourselves part of the big rock 'n' roll family.
2006, March 16 : the Dixie Chicks release the single Not Ready To Make Nice, affirming their ongoing belief in their stance.
Emily Robison : The stakes were definitely higher on that song. We knew it was special because it was so autobiographical, and we had to get it right. And once we had that song done, it freed us up to do the rest of the album without that burden.
Natalie Maines : I apologized for disrespecting the office of the President, but I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever.
June 15 2006 : When the band returns to Shepherd's Bush Empire, their merchandise includes T-shirts bearing the legend: 'The Only Bush we Trust is Shepherd's Bush'.
Emily Robison : A lot of artists cashed in on being against what we said or what we stood for because that was promoting their career, which was a horrible thing to do. ... A lot of pandering started going on, and you'd see soldiers and the American flag in every video. It became a sickening display of ultra-patriotism.
Natalie Maines commented : The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism. Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country ... I don't see why people care about patriotism.
2007, February 11 : The Dixie Chicks win no less than five Grammy Awards at The Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Natalie Maines : I’m ready to make nice. I think people are using their freedom of speech with all of these awards.
Natalie Maines : I’m really proud of what went down. I spoke up for what I believe - that’s what art is about and what musicians should be about. And if I’d known anybody was listening, I would have said something to really make a mark.
Emily Strayer : It feels like another lifetime to me, it doesn’t even feel real - our country’s changed, we’ve changed, the fans definitely have.
Natalie Maines : I look at how much more polarized and intolerant people have become now, with social media, opinions all start becoming noise, but at that point, people weren’t really supposed to have an opinion.
I hate politics. It’s become an industry. It sickens me.
----------------------------------------------------------
SOURCES :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks#2003.E2.80.9305:_Controversy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks:_Shut_Up_and_Sing
Der Spiegel : Sep 2003 Martie Maguire comments
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing - 2006 tv documentary
Daily Telegraph, June 14, 2006, interview with Adam Sweeting.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/natalie-maines-a-dixie-chick-declares-war-on-nashville-20130530 June 6, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/arts/music/21pare.html May 21, 2006
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/aug/22/1
Interview on US tv show 60 Minutes, May 2006