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Posted on 04/24/2003 8:41:13 PM PDT by luv2ndamend

They have been called Saddam's Angels and the Dixie Sluts, traitors and big mouths, all because they made a disparaging remark about President Bush at a concert in London last month. Radio stations stopped playing their new CD and invited listeners to dump their old albums in rubbish bins and there have been death threats and calls to boycott their upcoming US tour.

Now the Texas-based Dixie Chicks are fighting back. They have posed for the cover of next week's Entertainment Weekly cheerfully wearing nothing but the epithets they have attracted and vowing to continue to speak their minds.

It was Guardian critic Betty Clarke who reported that Dixie Chicks singer, Natalie Maines, had said on stage at the Shepherd's Bush Empire: "We're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas." As Entertainment Weekly says: "If it hadn't been for one London critic - from the left-leaning newspaper the Guardian - approvingly quoting Maines's remark, the group might still have the No 1 country single and a top 10 pop hit instead of being all but banished from the nation's airwaves."

When country websites and radio stations picked up the Guardian review, the campaign began against the band, who have helped to revive the popularity of country music over the last five years, selling 25 million CDs.

They disappeared from playlists and became the object of abuse from talk show hosts and newspaper columnists. Maines apologised, say ing: "Whoever holds that office [the presidency] should be treated with the utmost respect." That has not been enough for some.

Now Maines needs 24-hour security outside her home. The other two members of the band have also felt the heat: trash has been dumped outside the home of Emily Robison and the tour driver of Martie Maguire has resigned. The rightwing country singer, Toby Keith, is using a backdrop of Maines and Saddam Hussein.

Maines said that "we have nothing but support for the troops". She had expressed her feelings because "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. It seems unfathomable that someone would not want to drive us because of our political views. But we're learning more and more that it's not that unfathomable to a large percentage of the population."

Emily Robison said: "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." All the band supported Maines: "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."

Maines said that the US ambassador had come backstage after their concert in London, "so he must not have been offended".

When their US tour starts next month, they are bracing for more protests. But there are signs of a backlash against the backlash with sales of their CD, Home, bouncing back up in the charts last week.

"People think this'll scare us and shut us up and it's gonna do the opposite," said Maines. "They just served themselves a huge headache."

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