The Chicks Compare George W. Bush to ‘Deranged Nut Job’ Trump: ‘Now I’d Give George Bush a Big Wet Kiss’
Billboard ·
The country trio is on the road celebrating 20 years of their post-controversy classic Taking the Long Way . And they’re still not ready to make nice.
Album anniversary tours are, by nature, nostalgic affairs – warm, rose-tinted walks down memory lane about the good old days. That’s not quite the case for The Chicks ’ current anniversary tour for Taking the Long Way , which came out 20 years ago in the wake of an almost career-ending controversy. Their crime? Criticizing President George W. Bush as the United States prepared to invade Iraq over false claims that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction and its then-leader Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. “We’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas,” singer Natalie Maines told a London audience on March 10, 2003.
The backlash was swift and brutal. Country radio stations dropped their then-hit singles from playlists, conservative media pundits rushed to decry them as unpatriotic “bimbos,” fellow country artists told them to shut up and so-called fans barraged them with death threats.
Taking the Long Way , produced by Rick Rubin and preceded by the pointedly titled single “Not Ready to Make Nice,” was the trio’s first album since what Maines referred to Monday (Oct. 12) night at the Beacon Theatre in New York City as “the incident.” On one hand, it was a helluva comeback: it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Billboard ’s Top Country Albums chart and won the 2007 Grammy for album of the year, as well as country album of the year. Plus, “Not Ready to Make Nice” hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and nabbed three Grammys, including song of the year and record of the year. On the other hand, that single peaked at No. 36 on Billboard’ s Hot Country Songs chart – a noticeable drop for a band accustomed to going top 10 on that tally. While the pre-controversy Chicks scored six Hot Country Songs No. 1s and 15 top 10s, the Chicks haven’t gone higher than No. 20 (“Gaslighter” in 2020) since then. All of which is to say that while the controversy hardly cost the Chicks their career, they never returned to pre-incident levels of dominance in Nashville.
But enough history lessons. Because while T he Chicks’ current tour finds them playing that classic 2006 LP start-to-finish before offering up a rollicking ‘best of’ encore, this tour feels vibrant, vital and relevant.
Here are seven of the best moments from the band’s first show at Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre.