A Broadsheet reader pointed us to this terrific interview in Entertainment Weekly with the Dixie Chicks' lead singer, Natalie Maines, which comes three years after the group was attacked by the country music establishment -- and by fans across the country -- for telling a London concert audience that "we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas."
The Dixie Chicks have an untitled new disc set to be released in April. The song in which the group addresses the Bush-bashing incident may be called "Not Ready to Make Nice" -- but in the EW interview, Maines has no problem addressing it head-on. Asked whether if the album is a big hit, she'll return to the bosom of the Nashville music scene, she replies "At this stage ... I would be cheating myself and not setting a good example for my children to go back to something that I don't wholeheartedly believe in. 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 also tells the magazine that she and her bandmates don't have any regrets. "It was eye-opening," she says. "And positive in so many ways. I wouldn't change any of it." She also has no intention of keeping her mouth shut in the future. "Every day a soldier dies, I am more proud that I spoke out," she says. "For the last three years, I am at a loss for words as to ... what this country is. Who we are ... I used to try and make sense of it but when Bush got reelected, I just didn't know what to do. Keep livin'. It's gotta change back."
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