Natalie Maines of The Chicks says she’d now ‘give George Bush a big wet kiss’ compared with Trump
Natalie Maines used a Manhattan concert this week to revisit the remark that sparked a major backlash against The Chicks more than two decades ago. The Chicks frontwoman told the crowd she would now welcome former President George W. Bush back compared with President Trump, and a White House insult aimed at her is back in circulation.
Speaking Monday at the Beacon Theatre, Ms. Maines said she would “never” bow to the “shut up and sing” crowd, Billboard reported. “We thought that was the worst it could get,” she said of the backlash over her 2003 comments about Mr. Bush. “Now I’d give George (W.) Bush a big wet kiss.” Fox News reported she added that “now we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from the United States.” Billboard also quoted her as calling Trump a “deranged nut job.”
The White House previously called Maines a “despicable nobody” suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” with a “peanut-sized brain,” in a statement to Fox News Digital in May. That statement followed a profane Instagram rant in which Maines accused Trump of destroying democracy. Fox cited the same statement in its Wednesday coverage of her latest remarks, though it was unclear whether the White House had issued a new response.
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Ms. Maines’ remark about Mr. Bush echoed her words at a London concert in 2003, when she told the audience she was ashamed the president was from Texas. The comment set off boycotts and radio bans. The group, then known as the Dixie Chicks, returned in 2006 with “Taking the Long Way,” which topped the Billboard 200 and won five Grammys. The group dropped “Dixie” from its name in 2020.
The Chicks’ 20th anniversary tour began Sept. 30 in Detroit and, according to an updated schedule, was set to include three Beacon Theatre performances, Oct. 10, 12 and 13. The group is scheduled to perform Thursday in Nashville.
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