Bill Maher: First up they are multiplatinum recording artists, just kicked off the Vote for a Change concert tour, please welcome the Dixie Chicks. Hey you guys, how are you doing?
Chicks: Good
Bill: How'd the concert go tonight?
Natalie: It went really well. Um, there were a lot of Liberals there.
Bill: Yeah, well that's what I was gonna ask you. First up is do you really think this is gonna change anybody's vote? I mean, describe to me the kind of person who might change over, who would come to the concert, watch the concert, see sweet baby james, sing that damn traffic jam, and then say, "Bush sucks, I'm going for Kerry?"
Martie: But what are the polls saying the undecided vote is? I mean, it's pretty high, so maybe we'll sway...
Emily: It's getting shorter every day. You know, we're kinda preaching to the choir at this point at the shows, but what we're really doing is raising money for ACT, which is getting people on the ground, out there, edcuating people before they vote, so that's kinda more the focus of it.
Natalie: And I think the media around it as well is where we'll meet, reach the people who um, you know, are not fans, that are not automatically on our side politically, so you make them listen to you that way.
Bill: Now you guys are all married, you have kids, you're heterosexual, you live in a red state, what is it you don't get about George Bush?
Emily: I think that as women...
Bill: And what do you...go ahead...
Emily: Just that I think women know when they are being lied to, always, but we have that sixth sense, you know, and...
Bill: I was hoping not, but go ahead.
Natalie: That's bad for you, Bill.
Bill: But I mean, what do you say to, I mean, George Bush's base, let's face it, is teh white male voter, especially the southern white male voter, that's somebody I'm sure you've grown up with your whole life. Why do, I don't get it, why the white male, who thinks he's so tough, who's going for George Bush who's tough, you know, the guy who sat out on the war, the guy who couldn't get up on 9-11...
Natalie: Yeah, no, I don't understand that either. I don't understand that at all, you know, he doesn't represent any of those people. He represents the elite, he represents the moneymakers, and to me personally I think he represents people who care more about money than people, so I don't understand why.
Bill: Well, there's that old blue state love for you right there. So let me ask you this, I mean, you guys obviously lost some fans. You must've, especially because of the part of the country you come from. I mean, you made your start in country music, you're still huge superstars in country music, but you must have lost some fans. Now, I'm not that familiar with your part of the country, but when you guys go out, when you're shopping at the Piggly Wiggly, or the general store, wherever you go to get the feed for your crops, um, do people, do the people down there ever make snide remarks to you? Do you ever get some...
Natalie: It's hard to hear over the horse clip-clopping. No, believe it or not, the conservatives are a little bit cowardly, and they um, are usually not the ones that come up and say something, it's the supporters, they always come up and say, you know, I'm glad you said what you said, and I'm behind you. We don't get a lot of negatives, but we definitely lost a lot of fans, and it's unfortunate, you know, we haven't had a big test of that, but on this tour, we haven't sold out St. Louis, which is 4300 seats, and on our tour, we sold two nights at the arena, and we've still got 600 tickets left.
Bill: Yeah, but I mean, I'm sure that you realize when you go out there, as I've played St. Louis recently and what you find is, there's a lot of blue people in red states and they love you even more because you came to the place where they never hear what you have to say because they always have to listen to the guy on the horse. Um...
Emily: But you know, we're also contending with the fact that the media won't, a lot of media outlets, won't promote the show because it's political, and so we're dealing with country radio stations who won't, you know, promote the show, we're dealing with local news shows who won't promote the show, so you know, there's that part of it too.
Natalie: So if you're in St. Louis
Emily: Come on in
Natalie: Come buy a ticket
Bill: Yeah, I love St. Louis and I'm telling ya, I think they'll come out for you. Um, you recently wore a T-shirt, I think Natalie, that said FUTK, which a lot of people thought stood for "F**k You Toby Keith"
Natalie: Freedom, Understanding...
Bill: Is that what...
Martie: Truth and Knowledge
Natalie: Truth and Knowledge. Freedom, Understanding, Truth, and Knowledge.
Bill: Which, in itself, is a way of saying f**k you Toby Keith. But I mean, you have had a, kind of a famous feud, and does it bother you that you are sometimes linked to this simple-minded redneck, and by that I mean George Bush?
Emily: You're getting us into a lot of trouble, Bill.
Natalie: I don't think we can get in more trouble.
Bill: But what is the status of that feud, let me play my gay character for a second, what's going on with the feud?
Natalie: Well, um...
Bill: Who's putting a boot in whose a**?
Natalie: Well, um, I think other people made a big deal about it. Exactly. He...I said I didn't like his song, no big deal, and he put a picture of me in his show, where my husband was with me, but he put Sadaam's head on my husband, and uhhh...
Bill: That is...
Natalie: I didn't appreciate that.
Bill: Oh, that is powerful stupid.
Natalie: So I wore, I wore the shirt and naively thought that nobody would get it, but everyone got it, and we got in even more trouble.
Bill: Well we'll leave that alone. Now look, on this tour you have Bruce Springsteen, the Boss, REM, you have Jackson Brown, my fav, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam. The other side, now, I haven't heard a lot about, now obviously Toby Keith is for Bush, but the other two I've heard are for Bush are Britney Spears and Ashlee Simpson, uh, who are two sweet girls, but you know, really, uninformed morons, and uh...
Emily: Actually, I heard that Jessica Simpson... (unintelligible)
Natalie: Really?
Martie: She's not praying for the president anymore?
Emily: That she's not saying either way, but she wasn't...
Bill: But I mean, is it coincidence that the two stupidest people on earth are for Bush? Is that coincidence?
Martie: They're not stupid, they're just young.
Bill: Okay.
Natalie: And they're, they're getting married and divorced and married again; they're busy.
Bill: All right. Last question. Linda Rondstat in Las Vegas last year, or this year, made some comments praising Michael Moore and the people in the show room, the conservatives who were there, practically rioted. They threw glasses, stormed out of the room, they made more of a fuss than when the tiger ate Roy. Uhhhh, what, are you, what would you do if they did that to you? Or has it happened?
Natalie: Well, I'd say more people than a theater walked out on us, but um, I think it was terrible and I think it just proves that, you know, speech is not free, and everyone tries to say, well why are they whining about losing fans, you know, they said what they said, we have freedom of speech to not listen to their music or ban them, and the difference is, that's completely un-American, that's against the Constitution. You can not like what I said, and you can choose to not listen to me, but for there to be corporate bans because of someone's political views that were spoken very briefly and in an entertainment fashion, we've paid very large, and I think it's really important for people to realize that free speech is something you cannot take for granted and you have to keep fighting for it.
Emily: to exercise it
Bill: Beautifully said. Emily, Natalie, Martie, the Dixie Chicks, who are now the Dixie Women! Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it, good luck with your concert.
December 05, 2002
The DIXIE CHICKS -- NATALIE MAINES, EMILY ROBISON and MARTIE MAGUIRE -- make music magic in their hourlong special, "An Evening With the Dixie Chicks."
Filmed at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, the trio performs songs from its current hit album, Home, as well as a few golden oldies, in their first TV special in two years.
ET caught up with the award-winning Maines to chat about making music, the special, which airs on NBC, Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 8 p.m., and motherhood.
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: How heavily will the special rely on songs from Home?
NATALIE MAINES: I believe it is six new songs, and three old songs. When we did the shows, we performed the album in its entirety start to finish in the order on the CD. Then we did four songs from the previous two albums. Even the old songs we wanted to make different and revamp to fit in with the sound of this record. So, they are all acoustic, even the old material.
ET: How much better prepared for this special were you than previous ones?
NATALIE: I don't know about more prepared because we wanted to do something so different. Our last special was our tour. We had been on the road for three or four months before the special came around. So really, the last special was on the fly. It was just them coming to capture what we had been doing for a long time.
This time, we all felt a little more pressure because we had just made this record. When you make a record, you do things that will make the song sound good, and you can take your time in the studio, but then you have to recapture that live, so it was a lot for us to remember. Emily and I especially fell into a daze during the show because we were trying to remember so much. I had never played that much guitar in a show before, so I was particularly focused on the music and the playing.
ET: Do you have a favorite song on this new album?
NATALIE: It changes all the time, but I would say it's usually, "Top of the World."
ET: Who were some of the women singers who inspired you to do what you do?
NATALIE: Definitely PATTY GRIFFIN was one of them, and SHERYL CROW, STEVIE NICKS, BONNIE RAITT, EMMYLOU HARRIS and LINDA RONSTADT to name a few.
ET: What was your reaction the first time you heard the original Dixie Chicks?
NATALIE: At that time, I was not into that music. So it wasn't necessarily the songs that I liked or the voices, I was just blown away and proud watching Martie and Emily play their instruments. It's just not something you see that often, unfortunately. I have always been interested in female musicians and songwriters, so I think that's why I didn't hesitate in joining the band. I think it probably shocked people, because it was not the kind of music I was listening to. I just knew there was something special about their talent.
ET: Since you are a new mother with a 20-month old son, how has that changed the way you work?
NATALIE: I was always a laid back person, but I think I would get in a tiff over small things, being very much a perfectionist. I'm still a perfectionist, but now I have learned to be a better employer and a better employee. Things just roll off my back now because even if I contemplate getting angry about something, I picture seeing his face and his smile and it makes everything else seem unimportant.
ET: How do the three of you make music decisions?
NATALIE: It is interesting. We don't talk that much about it because we don't want to argue with fate, but really as far as music goes, we've always been on the same page every single time. Even though we are at different ages, it seems as if we are at the same stages in our lives.
The first two albums were very reflective of where we all were. Obviously, on the second album Martie and I were getting divorced, and Emily was planning her wedding, so that was a bit of a difference there. But we have always been strong women who like attitude songs, and this time, there was no arguing that we wanted to make an acoustic album, and no arguing about songs. There is never a time that somebody continues to feel passionately about a song if the other two aren't into it.
Diane
Sawyer
Interview
by Rob Brunner
Would you ever consider doing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" on an album or in concert? --Suzy, Florence, Ala.
Oh, no. I'll be very content if I never play "Devil Went Down to Georgia" again. It's just one of those things that you do when you're learning. We try to be real careful about what we cover. I really had to be encouraged strongly to cover [Fleetwood Mac's] "Landslide." [Fellow Dixie Chick] Emily [Robison] and I were pretty against it in the beginning, and Natalie [Maines] encouraged us to do it. You almost don't want to touch those kind of songs. When the Smashing Pumpkins covered that song, I really thought it kind of ruined it. I like to be respectful of great songs like that. But I feel like the approach we took was so different, so stripped down and organic, that I was happy with it.
Is there the slightest chance of ever hearing you take lead vocals on a song? I love your voice on "I Wasn't Looking for You." --Vicky Croisant, St. Johns, Mich.
Maybe if I found the right song, but I love Natalie's voice. I really enjoy harmonizing more; I sing kind of quietly. Why have me take up a song when she has such a great voice?
Do you ever listen to pop music? --Laurie Privitera, Wethersfield, Conn.
My closet CD that I don't admit that I really listen to is Celine Dion. My husband's sister passed away in a car accident, and she was a huge Celine Dion fan. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" was her favorite song, so that's kind of my guilty pleasure. We just drove down to San Antonio to see Emily give birth, and we listened to the Backstreet Boys the whole way down there. And I am an 'N Sync fan.
I admire your talent on the fiddle and mandolin. Do you play any other instruments? --Meredith Mauldin, Charleston, S.C.
I play a little acoustic bass and a little guitar. In our house there are instruments everywhere, and I love picking them up and just noodling around. I pick up my husband's tin whistle sometimes. He's really proficient, but it's about the second most annoying instrument - after the banjo - if you don't know how to play it.
Do you even get nervous anymore? --Raina Christenbury, Sterling, Va.
I probably get the most nervous of the three of us. I'm such a worrier. It's something I've been trying to change about myself for 33 years. It's the not being able to control the unforeseen. What if strings pop off my fiddle in the middle of my fiddle? There was a time on the "Fly" tour when I had a brain block, for some reason. I started off on a fiddle tune, and I couldn't remember how it went. So I just stopped. I took another stab at it and stopped in the same place. I could not get over the hump. Emily and Natalie were laughing. It helps to have your cohorts onstage making fun of you.
Do you consider yourself the hot one? --Mike DaSilva, Queens, N.Y.
Oh my God, no. I consider myself the old one.
Which of you is the most ticklish? --Katie Swick, Branford, Conn.
Um, I think Emily. I know when she gets a pedicure it drives her crazy. Everything tickles her feet.
-- www.ew.com
** Introduction by host **
Natalie: We're just real. If there's any formula to it,
it's that there is no formula.
** clip of Landslide plays **
Martie: We do what we do best. I mean, we play the
banjo and the fiddle and sing, and umm... I just don't
think we'll ever get too far away from really what we
do essentially.
Natalie: I think the audience can tell when you're being
phony and when you're being yourself. Even if, ummm...
[pauses and looks at feet] you know, you say something
stupid, or whatever. And not... I'm not basing it on
this latest thing [laughs and looks at feet]. But, I
said stupid stuff WAY back [laughs]. And it's just
real to people, you know? We don't mind our p's and
q's all the time, and worry about every little thing
[looks nervously at feet].
Holmes: What did you actually say, and what did you
mean?
Natalie: Uh... I said... what did I say? [smiles big,
looks at feet, then at ceiling, then laughs] I said...
um... we're embarrassed... uh, just so you know, we're
embarrassed...
Martie: Ashamed...
Natalie: Oh, we're ashamed that the President is from
Texas...is that what I said? [looks at Martie]
Emily: Yeah.
Natalie: And it was a joke and it wasn't planned. And
it was really funny at the time, and... [laughs out
loud]. It got lots of cheers and that's what it was
meant for. Uhhh...
Emily: I think it just, it does get blown out of
proportion and I think people are so sensitive right
now, you know, in the states, that um... they want
something to put their energy towards, whether it be
negative or positive and so I think that's what's
happening.
Natalie: You see the trouble that you can get into if
you speak religion or politics. It gets people very
upset [all while looking at feet]. But, um, U.N.
approval would have been nice... [remainder of reply
edited out]
Martie: You know, I think President Bush is used to
controversy. Anybody who holds a powerful position like
that is always... [interrupted by Natalie]
Natalie: He's the president! Serious!
Martie: ...I mean, he's the brunt of so many jokes -
David Letterman and Jay Leno attack him every night
and, you know, he has to be able to let that roll off
his back.
Holmes: So what do you think of the South Carolina
legislature asking you, almost demanding you, to perform
a free concert for military families to try and make up?
Natalie: That's ridiculous!
Martie: We have to decide... [interrupted by Emily]
Emily: I just wish we could decide... [interrupted by
Natalie]
Natalie: I... I... I would just think [rolling eyes
And looking annoyed] or hope that they have better
things to decide on, to talk about. I think it's just horrible.
Emily: ...other than a free Dixie Chicks concert, you
know?
Holmes: Because you are patriotic, aren't you? You
sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.
Natalie: [shaking head yes and looking at feet]
Emily: I don't think you have to be... you, you [don't] sing
the National Anthem at the Super Bowl to be patriotic.
** clip of National Anthem plays **
Emily: You know I think all... I think all Americans
Are patriotic. Um, whether they're, uh, dissenting or not. Or,
or, you know, just putting a flag on their car, you know? I think
it's one of those things where on either side of this issue you can
be patriotic, and that's what Americans are forgetting right now.
** clip of Goodbye Earl plays **
<snip conversation about ticket sales and tattoos>
** clip of Travelin' Soldier plays **
Holmes: Do you have anything words for your soldiers?
Natalie: Oh, sure. Umm... [shakes head and looks at
feet] Get back safe and sound. I wish 'em the best,
and I... [pauses, looks at feet, shakes her head and
giggles] will wait for them.
Holmes: Are they doing the right thing?
Natalie: [rolls eyes with annoyed look] They're doing
their job. [shakes head]
Holmes: Do you have a message for Mr. Bush?
Natalie: [smiles and shakes head] No. [giggles]
TV Guide: What’s new in your lives?
Maines: I just got Ralph [a bulldog] and moved to Los Angeles near the beach. I have a house in Nashville, too.
Seidel: I live wherever the action is.
Maines: Yeah, she moves a lot. Not her house, but her body.
TVG: Martie, you’re single again?
Seidel: I was trying to be a good wife. It’s just such a struggle because I want to do music 24 hours a day. [Now] I feel like I have that freedom.
TVG: There are rumors you’ve had some plastic surgery — a boob job?
Seidel: [Laughs and shakes her head] I didn’t think I needed one.
Maines: They got bigger naturally.
TVG: Natalie, you got divorced and fell in love with actor Adrian Pasdar. The word is that you want a baby.
Maines: Ralph’s my baby. Print that. And print that my divorce is final. There’s all this gossip going around that I’m just a little hussy: not even divorced, a boyfriend, ready to get pregnant. No. Stop the train.
TVG: Emily, it’s your first anniversary.
Robison: I’m a little scared about the next year, seeing how long we’re going to be on the road. But I wouldn’t have married him unless I knew we had the capacity to work through this lifestyle.
TVG: How does this new life affect your music?
Robison: I think the second album [Fly] was a little bit autobiographical in the way it mirrored what we were going through. As things get crazier, we’ll probably pick and write songs that reflect that craziness for the next album. Our music always reflects where we are in our lives.
TVG: Martie, now that you are on your own, have you started to date?
Seidel: Yes. He lives in England. But he’s from Ireland. He’s a teacher and a soccer player. He plays the tin whistle.
Maines: Martie wears her heart on her sleeve. [Suddenly, they all stare at Martie’s red T-shirt, which has a heart design cut into the front.] Maybe I should say she wears her heart on her "cleave." [Bursts of laughter]
TVG: Is "Earl" a feminist backlash to the O.J. Simpson case?
Maines: We call it our ode to O.J. Simpson. But we didn’t write it. [Dennis Linde did.] I think initially when we heard it, we just thought it was so funny. We’re not saying kill your husband if he touches you. It was more [like], "This is a bad character, and these girls are going to do something really bad to him, but don’t take it too seriously."
TVG: Yet it has had some serious impact.
Robison: Some stations will play the song and then [cite] the statistics about domestic abuse. And I think that’s great.
TVG: Let’s talk about your early days. What’s the worst gig you ever played?
Robison: We were playing this open-casket funeral.…They paid us $100, so we did it. I was probably 17, 18 years old. We sang Bette Midler’s "The Rose" with banjos and fiddles.
TVG: People seem to think the Dixie Chicks are a single entity. Define the differences.
Seidel: I feel responsible for the group’s emotional well-being.
TVG: Did you share your troubles with the group while your marriage was ending?
Seidel: I wouldn’t talk to them about it at first because I really felt like I had to protect them.
Maines: None of us talked. I didn’t talk about [her divorce]. Neither of us talked about our marital problems.
Seidel: We are best friends, and we don’t want to have to have [one another] worry.
TVG: Emily, you’re considered the intellectual one.
Robison: I wouldn’t say that necessarily. I’m the more pragmatic one.
Seidel: It’s a hair thing.
Robison: Yeah, I’m brunet now, so I’ve gained a few IQ points.
TVG: Why the change?
Robison: It was an experiment on our time off. I thought, "If I’m going to be home, I don’t want to have to go to the salon all the time."
Maines: What’s said about me?
TVG: That you come from your gut.
Maines: Oh, that’s sweet. I got that from my dad [guitarist Lloyd Maines]. I definitely have strong beliefs. Lots of convictions come from my gut.
TVG: Will you each have your own bus when you tour?
Robison: I can’t imagine being on my own bus until we have families. Natalie’s designing the bus, and she’s designing three different compartments; that can be pretty private.
TVG: What happens if a guy visits?
Maines: There’s a double bed in each.
Seidel: And feather mattresses.
Maines: I can’t wait to look around and go, "Oh my God, we made all this. We paid for all this." We may fall off that pedestal and not be able to afford something like this later on, but right now we can. And so we’re going to do it our way.
Jamie Gangel:“If you had it to do over again would you do it the same way?”
Natalie Maines: “I would still say something against the war and against everything that was going on. But it would’ve been very intelligent (Laughter) and well thought out.”
This year has been a roller coaster for the Dixie Chicks. When it started, they were sweeping awards and monopolizing the spotlight. Then, “the incident” and overnight, they were facing angry fans, boycotts and protests.
They did apologize, sort of, for being disrespectful. But the now infamous Entertainment Weekly magazine cover, where the Dixie Chicks posed nude, said it all:
Maines: “I just wanted to get naked.”
Martie Maguire: “I wanted people to see the absurdity and... just the specter of the names that we were being called, just to kind of get a sense of how far it had gone. Because I think a lot of people really didn’t know... that it was into death threats and, you know, being called ‘The Dixie Sluts’ and things like that.”
Gangel: “Can I ask you how you feel about the war today as you watch it unfold?”
Maines: “Saddened.”
Gangel: “Because?”
Maines: “This is dangerous... because I think people were misled and I think people are fighting a war that they didn’t know they were going to be fighting. And I think they were mislead by people who should’ve been asking questions and weren’t.”
Gangel: “Does it in some ways though make you feel vindicated Natalie for what you said?”
Maines: “No, I would’ve liked to have been proven wrong.”
As for President Bush, the group is still angry about a comment he made.
President Bush: “The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say and ... they shouldn’t have their feelings hurt, just because some people don’t want to buy their records when they speak out. I mean, you know, freedom is a two-way street.”
Gangel: “When you heard the president say that how did you feel?”
Maines: “My heart sunk.”
Gangel: “Because?”
Emily Robison: “He wasn’t standing up for the principles that our country are founded on. It was very… it’s not what you want the official statement to be from your government.”
Maguire: “I want something inspiring — not something petty like that.”
Maines: “Or something like ‘We agree to disagree and that’s what’s great about America...’”
Maguire: “‘You got what he deserve,’ is basically what it said. ‘This is going to happen if you keep speaking’ out and it’s a way to kind of shut you up.”
Maines: “It didn’t work.” (Laughter)
Gangel: “Why do I get the feeling that we’re going into Round Three?”
Even with the controversy, their U.S. tour was a huge success, grossing $60 million. But, the Chicks admit, now that they are back home in Texas, they’re anxious to see what happens to their career.
Gangel: “How important is it to you that this CD particularly do well?”
Maines: “I mean it could be a huge disappointment or it could be a big surprise. I feel for the first time in our career that we’ve really come to a place where we couldn’t call it. I think it’ll be a telling release.”
Gangel: “Talk to me about the tour. Were you worried the first night when you went out there?”
Maguire: “You didn’t know if you were going to walk out on stage and get booed (laughter) or whether they were just going to love you or whether you’re going to have, you know, the people up in the balcony shouting obscenities at you. You just didn’t know— every night you were just kind of wondering what the atmosphere was going to be like.”
Maines: “And people say, you know, ‘But your tour was sold out, you had the biggest selling tour.’ And I was like ‘Yeah, but would it have done that if it went on sale after March 10?’ I tend to think not.”
Gangel: “Right.”
Maines: “So we don’t have any indication as of yet, you know, how many people still like us.” (Laughter)
Along the way there were scary moments, even death threats, and one night, they almost didn’t go on.
Maguire: “Emily and I didn’t want to do the show, the particular show, particular time, a particular weapon. You know, just very specific and we didn’t want to do the show but Natalie was like, ‘They can’t win! Negative! The bad people can’t win!’ And she’s very strong.”
Robison: “I said, ‘Just don’t stand next to me when we’re on the stage.” (Laughter)
Gangel: “You didn’t worry about it.”
Maines: “No. It’s not about worry. It’s just I’m not going to let that win. I mean what if— we had gotten one of those every single night. We’re going to cancel our whole tour and let these people disrupt our lives?”
The new, more political Dixie Chicks have also recently joined the “Rock the Vote” campaign and say they will continue to speak out. And they say whatever happens they have no regrets:The new, more political Dixie Chicks have also recently joined the “Rock the Vote” campaign and say they will continue to speak out. And they say whatever happens they have no regrets:
Maines: “We’re fine. I mean we like making music and we’ll continue to do that whether people buy it or not.”
Maguire: “You have to feel like you’re about to lose something before you really appreciate it. That’s human nature and we’ve gotten to that point and that’s a gift.”