Say Anything Blog

You'll remember Natalie as the out-spoken Dixie Chick who said she was "ashamed" of President Bush to a an international audience.  Her band has never quite recovered from that (they certainly haven't had a hit since then) and Natalie seems a bit bitter about it all:

The National Ledger - The Dixie Chicks were humming along as a darling country music trio until one night in March 2003 in London.  Lead singer Natalie Maines slammed President George W. Bush at a concert and announced to the British crowd, ''We're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.''

That didn't sit well with country music fans then, and now Maines says she's finished with the genre and is none too pleased with the fans, basically labeling them as redneck hicks.

She tells Entertainment Weekly, "the stereotype is true."

"For me as a person, [The incident has] completely altered the course I was on," Maines tells Entertainment Weekly. "For me to be in country music to begin with was not who I was. I liked Martie and Emily's (the talented Dixie Chicks) playing, but I did not grow up liking country music."

"And I guess I was ignorant to the fact that the stereotypes behind country music were true — and it was disappointing."

Ouch.  She wasn't finished trashing the fans of country music.

"So I'm pretty much done. They've shown their true colors. I like lots of country music, but as far as the industry and everything that happened... I couldn't want to be farther away from that," Maines told EW.

So - how do sisters Emily and Martie feel about this?

"Um... I don't know," answers Maines.  Yikes.

Redneck hicks, eh?  I wonder if she thinks that to herself when she deposits her royalty checks and concert proceedings.
I was never much of a Dixie Chicks fan, nor am I much of a follower of today's country music scene, but even I can tell you that back in 2003 the Chicks were hot stuff.  They were dominating the country music scene like no other band or artist.  Then Natalie opened her mouth and it all went down hill.

Her plight should serve as a warning to other celebrities who would use their celebrity as a soapbox for their opinions.   She certainly has a right to her opinions, but so do her fans.  And not everyone in this country appreciates or enjoys the mindless bashing of our political leaders.