The Dixie Chicks are no strangers to controversy, and are ready to step back into more as they launch their DCX MMXVI North American Tour.
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Kicking off the tour on Wednesday in Cincinnati, Ohio, the band performed their hit “Goodbye Earl”; — about a woman who murders her abusive husband — while behind them onstage the backdrop showed a photo of presidential candidate Donald Trump, with devil horns and an evil-looking goatee scribbled on his face, reports NBC Washington.
This isn’t the first time the Dixie Chicks have waged political war in wide open spaces. https://t.co/GJZuMJnaYx pic.twitter.com/uCjI4FfzUI
— E! News (@enews) June 2, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThis shouldn’t be news to anyone who follows Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines on Twitter, where she’s been gleefully trashing Trump for months:
As long as Donald Trump’s decisions for America are as solid as his decision about his hair, we’re in good shape.
— Natalie Maines (@1NatalieMaines) January 24, 2016
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Maines also took some shots at Trump’s one-time rival (and rumoured potential vice-president pick) Ted Cruz:
Just so you know….I’m ashamed Ted Cruz is from America;) pic.twitter.com/QU39ERnAzN
— Natalie Maines (@1NatalieMaines) January 24, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsShe issued a slight amendment upon learning that Cruz is a naturalized American citizen who was born in Canada:
I stand corrected…Just so you know, I’m ashamed Ted Cruz claims to be American. pic.twitter.com/JUltNImOXH
— Natalie Maines (@1NatalieMaines) January 24, 2016
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The Dixie Chicks entered a firestorm of controversy back in 2003 when Maines criticized then-president George W. Bush for the invasion of Iraq, which earned the band death threats and accusations of being unpatriotic. They were later vindicated when facts emerged that the much-hyped “weapons of mass destruction”; that Bush used to justify the invasion didn’t actually exist.
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“It all put an ugly light on people that I was kind of happily naive to,”; Maines told Rolling Stone of the controversy. “But when I was going through it, I really didn’t feel like it was affecting me. I was in fight mode and battle mode, and I felt, you know, I was right, and free to say what I want to say.”;