Dixie Chicks singer issues apology for Bush comment
03/15/2003
After a day filled with heated fan and radio reactions against Texas' multimillion-selling country trio the Dixie Chicks over anti-Bush remarks Natalie Maines made to a sold-out audience Monday in London, the Chicks lead singer issued an apology to the president late Friday.
"As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful," she said. "I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect. We are currently in Europe and witnessing a huge anti-American sentiment as a result of the perceived rush to war. While war may remain a viable option, I just want to see every possible alternative exhausted before children and American soldiers' lives are lost."
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Ms. Maines started a backlash against her group by saying, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." The Lubbock native prompted country radio stations in Dallas, Arlington, Houston, Kansas City, Nashville and even Colton, Calif., to ban their music.
The apology, already on www.dixiechicks.com, may not have arrived in time to stop the temporary moratorium on Chicks music. KPLX-FM (99.5) "The Wolf," which announced Friday afternoon that it would stop playing all songs by the band, is taking a wait-and-see approach.
"We're probably going to let it go through the weekend and we'll post it on our Web site and deal with it Monday," said Paul Williams, program director for "The Wolf."
Some damage has already been done. MSNBC aired footage Friday of people in Kansas City, Mo., throwing Chicks CDs into a garbage can. A whopping 80 percent of the comments from Dallas Morning News readers posted Friday to DallasNews.com were against the group.
The reaction at Arlington's KSCS-FM (96.3) was equally harsh. Most of the more than 2,100 listener comments on the station's Web page were against the Grammy-winning group.
"I haven't seen reaction like this ever with such intensity," said Ted Stecker, program director for KSCS-FM. "I think most people do believe that everybody has their right to their opinion. But a lot of it hits a little more home in Texas."
In Austin, where Ms. Maines and fellow Chick Martie Maguire reside, there wasn't much need for political correctness. Chicks tracks stayed on the air at Americana station KGSR-FM and mainstream country dials KVET-FM and KASE-FM despite overwhelming negative response from listeners.
At the South by Southwest Music & Media Conference, Asleep at the Wheel co-founder Ray Benson defended the Chicks: "I applaud the Chicks for saying what they believe. If radio stations think they need to censor musicians for their political beliefs, those stations should move to Iraq."
Since 1998's Wide Open Spaces, the once-Dallas-based Dixie Chicks stirred controversy as they sold records. With their flamboyant fashion sense and in-your-face mix of country, bluegrass, rock and pop, they quickly scored critically and commercially.
On 1999's Fly, songs such as "Sin Wagon" and "Goodbye Earl" rocked the conservative country genre. In the last year, Ms. Maines was vocal about the group's $4 million lawsuit against Sony Music and country artist Toby Keith's post-9/11 single, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)."
Pop Music Critic Thor Christensen contributed to this report.
E-mail mtarradell@dallasnews.com
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