‘Rolling Stone’ Gaslights Public About The Chicks ‘Loving’ Country

There’s one thing that (most) all of us can agree upon. The [Dixie] Chicks—now known as The Chicks—got a raw deal by the country music industry, and were the first true victims of “cancel culture” after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized then President George W. Bush from the stage in London in 2003, saying, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”

Their music was banned from country radio. Any and all tour plans were cancelled. People piled their albums up in the parking lots of radio stations and other places and burned them. They became the face of anti Iraq War sentiment. And eventually, the comments of Natalie Maines turned out to be much more acceptable, if not commendable as the Iraq War became a quagmire, support for it plummeted, and eventually President Trump ran on criticizing his own party for it, and winning.

Though some were so sold on the idea that what Natalie Maines said was reprehensible that they still argue the point, the truth is time has been quite kind to those initial quotes. But there is one thing about the [Dixie] Chicks legacy that is inarguable. In the aftermath, the group moved away from country. Specifically, Natalie Maines issued some pretty scathing comments about the genre as a whole.

People love to tell only part of the story about the Chicks—the part that affirms their worldviews. Yes, The Chicks were most definitely “cancelled” in the truest sense of the word after the initial Natalie Maines comments. But they also made a triumphant comeback. Their 2006 record Taking The Long Way produced by Rick Rubin went on to be Certified Double Platinum, along with winning five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year in 2007.

Was a lot of this success due to sympathy votes and a backlash over the cancellation? Absolutely. But despite the album being seen as mostly a departure from what before had been The Chicks’ traditional country and acoustic sound mixed with pop inflections, Taking The Long Way is still a solid work, even if you would have to characterize it more as “Americana” or maybe a rootsy version of pop or rock, and indicative of Adult Contemporary of the 00’s era.

Taking The Long Way just received a 20th Anniversary Edition that includes some demo versions of songs and a couple of new tracks—something none of their other albums have received previously because, well, Natalie Maines and the Chicks haven’t really been very keen on promoting those albums as much. Wide Open Spaces (1998), Fly (1999), and Home (2002) remain iconic works of country music, with pretty incredible artistry from three women who wrote most of their own songs, and played their own instruments.

But over time, Natalie Maines hasn’t only distanced from a lot of this work, she’s outright lampooned it, and criticized the entirety of the country genre along the way. Upon the release of her solo album Mother in 2013, Natalie Maines used her disdain for country music as the primary way to market her music. This also came up with The Chicks’ 2020 album produced by Jack Antonoff, Gaslighter, which despite some characterizations, really wasn’t country at all.

That’s why it was quite shocking to see the headline recently from Rolling Stone Country proclaiming, “The Chicks Never Abandoned Country Music. ‘Taking the Long Way’ Is the Proof.”

The article even goes on to assert the Taking The Long Way was “a reminder that the Chicks are a country band making their version of country music. They never deserted the genre they loved, even if it deserted them.”

But like so much that Rolling Stone publishes these days, this headline, and this statement is categorically and provably false. In fact, it’s so false, the exact opposite is the case, and it’s shocking in its either sheer ignorance, or boldness in attempting to gaslight the public into believing something that is clearly not true.

You don’t have to go any farther than Rolling Stone itself to refute this notion that the [Dixie] Chicks, and specifically lead singer, songwriter, and front person Natalie Maines “loved country music.”

In a 2013 feature in Rolling Stone written by Brian Hiatt titled “Natalie Maines: A Dixie Chick Declares War on Nashville,” the Chicks’ lead singer is unabashed about her hatred for country, and makes sure to underscore that she never liked the genre.

Early on in the profile, it states “Maines is as fed up with country music as anyone still in a group called the Dixie Chicks could possibly be.”

Maines is then quoted as saying, “I wanted to be a pop star. I wanted to dance and sing.”

Maines says about the period before she was brought on with the [Dixie] Chicks to be the singer by her father, steel guitar legend and producer Lloyd Maines, “I had never bought a country album in my life, or even listened to one all the way through.”

Just this far into the Rolling Stone profile, and we can already refute the idea that Natalie Maines—who has become the face of The Chicks—“loved” country. But it goes even further. Talking with Natalie’s producer at the time, Ben Harper, when they got into the studio to record the solo album Mother, it was apparent to Ben Harper that Maines “was quite certain that she never wanted to make anything resembling a country album again.” And in true form, she hasn’t.

“I can’t listen to our second album. Because I was really, like, embracing country and really waving that country flag,” Natalie Maines then says in the Rolling Stone piece, referring to the band’s 1999 album Fly.

Maines then went on to say, “I just didn’t like how blatant country music was. Nothing seemed poetic or subtle. Nothing could be interpreted two different ways! It’s all very spelled out.”

This was the specific quote that went viral and touched a lot of nerves with country fans, fellow country music songwriters, and even folks who had defended Maines, and fought for her right to remain within the country field after the George Bush quotes, and specifically because she was from a left-wing perspective that they felt was needed within the genre. Now she was abandoning them as well, and running down the [Dixie] Chicks’ catalog that they loved, and fought for through all the controversy.

But this 2013 Rolling Stone profile was not the only place where Natalie Maines has run down country music, and insisted it was something she and the other Chicks never liked, let alone loved. There are half a dozen other examples from other interviews and media coverage that could be cited, including in 2013 when Maines told Pride Source “I was very honest about my influences and the kind of music I came from – and country was not it. I say that now and people think, ‘Ooh, she’s mad at country,’ and I never listened to country. I would say that if ever asked…”

Maines went on to say to Pride Source, “How I always viewed country music growing up – why I didn’t really relate to it or why I wasn’t drawn to it – was because, to me, it seemed so fake. Everyone was putting on these fake smiles, nobody had any anger and they were all just happy to be there. I just did not relate to that.”

Also in 2013, Natalie Maines said to CBS Sunday Morning about country music straight up, “It burned my ears.” That certainly doesn’t sound like someone who “loves” country.

But the one interview that presents an open and shut case was conducted by Mikael Wood in the Los Angeles Times in 2023 ahead of The Chicks playing a Las Vegas residency.

In the interview, Mikael Wood asks, “Do you feel like the Bush incident, which took place 20 years ago, is still a defining episode in the Chicks’ story?”

Natalie Maines responds, “It’s defining in the way it set us free. It got us out of this box of country music, which we never wanted to be in and never felt like that’s who we were. We didn’t have to do any of that bulls— anymore. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, country music, please take us back.’ It was middle fingers: ‘Bye!‘”

In this quote, Natalie Maines doesn’t leave anything open for interpretation, and doesn’t leave the timeline or their intentions of leaving country fuzzy. The Chicks never liked, let alone “loved” country, and they fully intended to leave the genre with Taking The Long Way.

And these examples aren’t selective, opportunistic pull quotes unearthed from obscure archives to refute a disputed claim. The quotes from the 2013 Rolling Stone feature, The CBS Sunday Morning interview, and the 2023 Los Angeles Times interview all became viral moments themselves, and were reported out by dozens, likely hundreds of outlets total over multiple years.

Whether you love or hate what Natalie Maines has said about country music, it’s a matter of the historical record, and irrefutable. So why is Rolling Stone and writer Marissa R. Moss trying to paint a different picture? It’s because Moss is a political apparatchik larping as a journalist, and trying to sell The Chicks and Taking The Long Way to country fans, hoping the left-leaning messages resonate with right-wing audiences to make people question their political beliefs.

But saying The Chicks never abandoned country and always “loved” the genre is “Gaslighting” at its finest and most elemental. It’s trying to get the public to believe something since you believe it’s in your best interests when the reality of things is something completely different.

It also happens to be insulting to the artistry of The Chicks. They stated indisputably that they wanted nothing to do with country music, and Maines says she always hated the genre. So attempting to assert that their music is country is an act of artistic disrespect, especially when The Chicks were clearly looking to move beyond country with Taking The Long Way and Gaslighter, and for good reason: The genre had completely disrespected them.

At the heart of Rolling Stone and Marissa R. Moss’s effort with their article is an incredible level of hubris. The ultimate failing of this political project is believing that people will divest from their long-standing political beliefs just because a music star tells them to—or in this case, if the media lies to them about a music star’s beliefs. The [Dixie] Chicks were perhaps the first and greatest example in the modern era of why this theory has never worked. What recently happened with Jelly Roll is another.

If a pop star comes out and espouses political beliefs that run counter to their audience, the most likely outcome is that audience will turn on that pop star and renounce their fandom, not their personal politics. Or at the least, the fans will ignore the performer, and instead focus on the music. And often, these efforts by artists and the press to sway the electorate one way or another in overt ways works counter to the cause.

It’s better to lead by example, leave the lessons for the stories and allegorical nature of songs, and open up hearts through the power of music as opposed to often awkward proclamations from the stage or social media, which commonly backfire or fall of deaf ears. This is not to advocate for “shut up and sing.” This is to assert that singing your beliefs is better than telling others to shut up on social media because they think differently from you, and hoping somehow that will reshape hearts and minds.

Unfortunately, Natalie Maines of the Chicks has categorically stated on numerous occasions that she wants nothing to do with country music, and never did. She’s also implicated her fellow band mates in these comments, with Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire never making an effort to distance or clarify. This has left what otherwise is a great catalog of country music in a weird quagmire of conflicting thoughts for country fans, and has confounded a legacy in country that could otherwise be Hall of Fame worthy.

It’s up to the public to decide what to do with this information. But it’s imperative on the press to present the truth in an unvarnished and accurate manner free of an agenda. Because ultimately, the people know what happened, and what was said. There will be no “Gaslighting” when it comes to how Natalie Maines and The Chicks actually feel about country music.

– – – – – – – – – – –

If you found this article valuable, consider leaving Saving Country Music A TIP.