Home Not So Sweet to Dixie Chicks

Sat., Mar. 15, 2003 1:30 PM PST by

You can take a cheatin' man down a peg or two, but don't go knocking on the President. That's the lesson the Dixie Chicks have learned.

Lead singer Natalie Maines, who criticized President Bush's plans for war with Iraq earlier this week, has since apologized after music fans complained and radio stations took the Chick's music out of rotation.

"As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful," she said in a statement released Friday. "I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect."

Speaking before an English concert audience earlier this week, Maines told the crowd, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas."

The Texan trio is on a European tour promoting their Grammy-winning album Home--the number one country album in the U.S. The group also has the number one country single, "Travelin' Soldier," about a soldier in Vietnam.

Maines' remark elicited a barrage of friendly fire from irate listeners who demanded a boycott of the Chicks music. Radio stations across the country responded: Two Dallas stations took Home off their playlists while one station in Kansas City held a Dixie "chicken toss" party, where protesters trashed the group's CDs.

Speaking from Europe on Friday, Maines said they were "witnessing a huge anti-American sentiment as a result of the perceived rush to war" during the tour.

"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. I love my country. I am a proud American," added the performer.

The Chicks aren't the only high-profile activists criticized as unpatriotic for their peacekeeping opinions. Martin Sheen, who says NBC big-wigs are very uncomfortable with his vocal antiwar stance, may have lost money because of his views.

According to an article in the New York Post earlier this week, Visa canceled a humorous check card commercial starring papa Sheen and son Charlie at a video store after viewers called the credit card company to complain about the TV prez.

Visa, which pulled the ad March 11 after four months on air, denies there's anything sinister about the move. " Visa does not use its advertising to make political statements, and neither the spot nor the conclusion of its run should be interpreted as one," said a statement released by the company on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, the Screen Actors Guild has issued an online plea on their Website, www.sag.org, to Hollywood producers asking that they avoid a return to the infamous blacklisting practices of the McCarthy era when even a whiff of dissent could cost an actor his future.

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