Pure Country

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Even With Apology, Fans Still Protesting Dixie Chicks
Maines Says Sorry In Statement To Bush Friday

POSTED: 9:18 a.m. EST March 17, 2003

Apparently singer Natalie Maines' apology to President George W. Bush Friday for a negative remark she made at a recent London concert wasn't enough for Dixie Chicks fans in Louisiana over the weekend.

On Saturday night, a few hundred protesters in Bossier City used a 33,000-pound tractor to destroy Dixie Chicks CDs and other items, referring to themselves as backers of President Bush and Barksdale Air Force Base.

Maines said at a Chicks' concert in London audience last week, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." The group -- consisting of Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robinson -- are all Texans.

"As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect," Maines wrote on the Dixie Chicks Web site Friday.

Like the statement she issued earlier in the week, Maines, writing while on the Chicks' tour of Europe, reiterated that the group is "witnessing a huge anti-American sentiment"-- the result of what Maines termed "the perceived rush to war."

"While war may remain a viable option, as a mother, I just want to see every possible alternative exhausted before children and American soldiers' lives are lost," Maines wrote. "I love my country. I am a proud American."

Maines' remark caused boycotts of the Dixie Chicks music from radio stations in Dallas, Houston, Kansas City and Pennsylvania.

Radio stations in Dallas and Fort Worth report "huge" listener reaction and movement against her statements. The Web site for KSCS FM, also in Dallas-Fort Worth, shows a photo of the Dixie Chicks with black tape over Maines' mouth and the headline "Have The Dixie Chicks Gone Too Far?" Meanwhile, KILT FM in Houston has suspended playing the Dixie Chicks, based on polls of listeners' reactions.

The group recently won four Grammy awards including Best Country Album for their smash album "Home." They're set to launch a tour of the United States May 1 in Greenville, S.C. They'll return to Texas for a show May 21.