Dixie Chicks Ruffle More Feathers
NASHVILLE (Billboard) – Just as the controversy appeared to be dying down after the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines mildly ridiculed President Bush before the start of the Iraq war, country radio programmers are disappointed in the group once again.
This time, they take issue with the fact that Maines apparently chose to take a shot at fellow country musician Toby Keith during her May 21 performance at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Maines wore a sleeveless shirt with the letters F.U.T.K. on the front.
Most viewers, including awards show presenter Vince Gill, interpreted the letters as an expletive aimed at Keith. After opening the envelope that revealed Keith had won the night’s biggest award — entertainer of the year — Gill quipped, “I think his name was on someone’s shirt tonight.”
For WXTU Philadelphia assistant PD/music director Cadillac Jack, Maines’ shirt was the show’s only disappointment. “With all the patriotism in the air that night, it was a downer and completely unnecessary,” he says. I was disappointed with them yet again.”
“Just when you think it’s safe to add the Chicks back into rotation,” KZKX Lincoln, Neb., PD Brian Jennings says. “Oh, Natalie, why do you make it so hard to love you?”
KSCS Dallas assistant PD/music director Chris Huff calls the awards show “a perfect opportunity for the Chicks to showcase their music, and unfortunately it’s now all overshadowed by four letters. No one’s talking about the song they performed. They’re talking about the four letters Natalie chose to wear on her shirt. How anyone could believe such an act would be a prudent move is totally beyond me.”
KTEX Brownsville, Texas, PD Jo-Jo Cerda says, “I was hoping that sometime soon we would be able to put this Dixie Chicks thing behind us. Unfortunately, the can of worms has just been reopened. I know a lot of KTEX listeners were ready to move on, but now national display against one of the more popular performers in our format. might as well have taken another jab at Bush.”
Dr. Bruce Nelson Stratton, PD of KFTX Corpus Christi, Texas, calls Maines “toast.”
KNIX Phoenix music director Gwen Foster is “disgusted with certain artists who just cannot see that the world doesn’t revolve around them and their pettiness all the time.”
“I think it was most distasteful for a national TV audience,” WTQR Greensboro, N.C., PD Bill Dotson says. “This is giving country music a black eye. For God’s sake, let it go.”
The spat between Maines and Keith goes back to his single “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),” which Maines criticized in the media last year. Keith responded with public comments that Maines wasn’t in his league as a songwriter. In his concerts, Keith has been showing on big screens behind the stage the doctored photo of Maines and Saddam Hussein that began circulating on the Internet a few months ago after Maines criticized Bush.
“This format is no stranger to squabbles among its children,” Huff says. “But we move on. Nothing is to be gained by turning it into a game of public one-upmanship on one of the few nights of the year where our format enjoys such broad national exposure.”
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