NEWS: Dixie Chick Discusses Death Threats

CELEB: Dixie Chick Discusses Death Threats

Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines claimed she had countless death threats since dissing President Bush in concert three years ago, but Maines said one death threat was particularly frightening

During a concert in London in March 2003, Maines announced to the audience, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” While Maines thought the comment was innocuous, the outcry erupted into a shit-storm costing the Dixie Chicks radio airplay. The fall out also started a feud with country singer/caveman extraordinaire Toby Keith, who claimed Maines had a “big mouth,” and accused the Dixie Chicks of lacking national pride. Death threats poured in, forcing concert promoters to install metal detectors at shows to avert violence.

In an interview airing tonight on “60 Minutes,” Maines confessed one stalker described the time and place in which he would attack her.

Despite the pressure and uproar from the original statement, Maines and the other Chicks stood their ground, refusing to apologize for voicing their concerns about our current administration.

This was definitely not an excuse to be naked on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

as much as i don't like their music, i have to admire their tenacity.

Someone must kill the Dixie Chicks.

Now what's all this about them criticizing the president?

I admire them for sticking to their guns considering their audience. I also just fucking love them in general.

Ya know, you never get credit for being the first guy to speak out on something. At best you're jailed, possibly killed. Theres always a sacrifice about it. Its really messed up.

Regardless of who they are, or what they have to say, saying it onstage, at a concert isn't the way to go.

It's not a political rally, and it is not a anti-war rally, or any such thing. It is a place where people come, and pay to hear you play music, not vent your political frustrations.

Go home, right a letter to the editor, or start a web page. Natalie Maines is an ignorant fool, who shot herself in the foot, and is now causing herself and her band members money.

Lesson number one, never, EVER do anything to upset your meal ticket.

The split between one's musical expression and one's political expression is not nearly as clear as you make it out to be.

Artists have every right to weave political messages in with their performances. And audiences have every right to react negatively to those political messages. They just don't have the right to threaten violence for said political messages.

It might not have been financially smart for them to do. But that's pretty irrelevant to the threats they've faced as a result of their actions.

What kills me about the whole Dixie Chicks fiasco is that the same people who were calling for them to be dropped from radio stations playlists were requesting that god-awful "Put a boot in their ass" song by Toby Keith. And as they did this, they claimed that the Dixie Chicks should leave politics out of music.

Well, that is, they should leave their politics out of it.

i saw green day after american idiot came out in grand rapids, mi. that show, obviously, was almost purely political. and it kicked ass. political statements and themes are sometimes what musicians are all about. eddie veder and pearl jam, the boys of system of a down, neil young, green day, and a ton of others interweave political statements into their music all the time.

i dont even think, in the case of the dixie chicks, that it was a terrible move. very bold, very honest. takes some backbone to upset the people that make you money. i think most musicans would rather be honest and never again make a dime if people dont agree than keep their mouths shut so they can continue to make money. if the dixie chicks fan base erodes, or just changes and they make a little less money, i bet they sleep just fine at night knowing that they were simply being who they are.

oh, and i was just fine that it gave them an excuse to get naked on the cover of a magazine. talk about pissing off the people that make you money.

Depends on how much your integrity costs. You can't eat it, after all.

Eitherway, Earl Had To Die makes me a fan of this band all by itself.

exactly, i mean you never see singers like bruce springsteen and neil young record protest songs or make statements onstage.
no artist has ever stood up for what they believed in nor should they...you saw what happened to ray charles- he was banned for life from alabama or something because he thot blacks should be treated fairly in the south...

Why does Ray Charles hate freedom?
Off to play "Masters of War".....

I have always kinda dug the DC's and when I heard what they said, it made me TOTALLY committed to them forever.... Too many people are fricking cowardly about being honest. Look how far we have regressed as a society in less than 6 years. It's simply shamefull and anyone who thinks artist's should not express their opinions simply has no clue about what drive's artist's.... So much of cultural and societal progress stems from what beings in art, poetry, music, drama..... These people are the free thinkers of our society... We should celebrate their input rather than condem them for having opinions... It's fine to say you may not agree, but to condem an artist for expressing themselves is simply hipocritical, what do people think art is....

I wonder what hurts more - losing your audience, or realizing that this was your audience.

All that EW cover needs is some audio and it would be an Obsession commercial.

Love the Dixie Chicks. Hate dumb ass country fans that supposedlty love rebellion and outlaws, then act like a bunch of pussies for anyone not toeing the Bush party line.

Want to keep being thought of as redneck assholes? Ban the best selling act in your genre and then bend over to suck Toby's dick. Mission Accomplished.

I don't know why, but it makes me think of the "Calvin Kleen" commercial from SNL.

If you never make comments such as this during a concert, your integrity would never be questioned.

Bingo.

Except, perhaps, by yourself. If you have a platform from which to speak to the wrongs you see, and don't use that platform out of fear of losing your meal ticket, and you aren't ashamed, then you have no integrity, whether anyone questions it or not.

Dixie Chicks and Political statements. 2 years from now we'll have a Dixie Chicks cover of "Counting Bodies Like Sheep" by Perfect Circle. That'd just be scary. All things consindered. I applaud them for what they did. I'm not a fan of our current president, but then again, our current president probably isn't a fan of us SG'ers either. Granted, by thier genre, dissing bush is a bad move, I think in the end, it'll turn out good for them by doing so. Already most of america hates him. CNN recently did a comparisson between Bush and Clinton, and Bush made Clinton look good. Really Good.

What doesn't amaze me at all is that the fucking rednecks STILL haven't let this go.