On March 9, 2003, the Dixie Chicks were beloved by just about everyone who listens to country music (and a whole lot of pop fans, too). Their last two albums, 1999’s Fly and 2002’s Home, collectively sold over 20 million copies and won them five Grammy Awards (I still have a soft spot for “Goodbye Earl,” though that’s largely thanks to Dennis Franz in the music video). They weren’t country popular; they were top-40 massive, and there was little to reason to think that Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, and Martie Maguire couldn’t rule the charts for another decade, not unlike Garth Brooks, whose first eight albums peaked in the top-five of the Billboard 200, before them. Then March 10, 2003, happened.
At the Shepherd’s Bush Empire Theatre in London, only a few days before the USA’s Invasion of Iraq, Maines said something that would permanently alter the way a large chunk of the Dixie Chicks core fanbase would regard the band: “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 that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
The response was swift and ugly. From a CNN article published at the time:
Country stations across the United States have pulled the Chicks from playlists…Station managers said their decisions were prompted by calls from irate listeners who thought criticism of the president was unpatriotic.
One station in Kansas City, Missouri held a Dixie “chicken toss” party Friday morning, where Chick critics were encouraged to dump the group’s tapes, CDs, and concert tickets into trash cans. (Via)
The week of Maines’ comment, their cover of “Landslide” was the tenth most popular song in the country; the week after, it sunk to #44. Meanwhile, the track she was introducing, “Travelin’ Soldier,” was the last Dixie Chicks song to peak in the top-25 of the Hot Country Song chart, where they used to be mainstays (all previous 16 singles made it). Here’s more on the backlash:
Dixie Chicks CD’s were rounded up, and in one famous incident were run over by a bulldozer. Concerts were canceled in the US as the Dixie Chicks couldn’t sell tickets, and rival concerts were set up that would take Dixie Chicks tickets in exchange. The Dixie Chicks lost their sponsor Lipton, and the Red Cross denied a million dollar endorsement from the band, fearing it would draw the ire of the boycott. The Dixie Chicks also received hundreds of death threats. (Via)
And yet, their next album, the Rick Rubin-produced Taking the Long Way, was a success, selling 2.5 million copies in the U.S. alone. It also won them five more Grammys, including the big three of Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year. Still, the Chicks’ popularity was waning: their Accidents & Accusations Tour was sparsely attended and many dates, including one in Houston, a major market in Maines’ home state of Texas, were cancelled. That was in 2006, or the last time you thought about the Dixie Chicks. What have HISTORY’S GREATEST MONSTERS been up to since then?
Martie Maguire and Emily Robison: the sisters toured and released an album under their side project name of Court Yard Hounds.
Natalie Maines: she married actor Adrian Pasdar (Heroes) and put out a solo album, Mother.
As for the band that made them millionaires, the Dixie Chicks are still around, although it’s unlikely they’ll release another album. Maguire told Billboard, “I’ve always hoped that we would become a recording entity again, but I don’t know. I really learned to kind of let go, and I’m so happy where everything is right now,” while in a separate interview, Maines commented, “I feel like we are tainted.” They toured in 2013, though tellingly, there wasn’t a single American date: they were all in either Canada or Europe.
You could argue their strumming success allowed Mumford & Sons to prosper, but otherwise, it’s as the radio pretends the Chicks next existed. At least we’ll always have “with Dennis Franz as Earl.”
