Celebrated country trio The Chicks wrote a tune shouting out an angry fan... then got a sweet apology from the former devotee years later...
Videos by Wide Open Country
As many fans may recall, The Chicks, comprised of Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, ruffled the honky tonk feathers of a few fans over 20 years ago.
"Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas," Maines declared in part onstage at a London concert back in 2003, at the height of the war in Iraq.
Unsurprisingly, the anti-war stance didn't sit well with many right-leaning fans. Many country music stations stopped playing The Chicks' music, and some fans reportedly destroyed their memorabilia.
However, The Chicks endured. Not only did they record a track that pushed back directly against the controversy (2006's "Not Ready to Make Nice"), but they also remained a top-performing country outfit over the years. To top it off, "Not Ready to Make Nice" also picked up Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
The Chicks' Natalie Maines Gleefully Doubled Down on the Rhetoric That Got Them in Trouble in 2003
At a concert on Oct. 10 at New York City's Beacon Theatre, the beloved country trio shed a bit more insight into what went into the tune.
But first, Maines doubled down on the rhetoric that riled fans up over two decades ago by taking a shot at the United States' current commander-in-chief, reality show personality turned president, Donald Trump.
"It's been 20 years. Now, we're looking back in retrospect on this album that was inspired by, yes, my brilliant words," the 51-year-old told the crowd, per PEOPLE. "Let me start the night off right and just say — I'm ashamed the president of the United States is from the United States."
The Chicks Reveal the Origins of Lyrics in "Not Ready to Make Nice"
Meanwhile, "Not Ready to Make Nice" includes the lyrics: "It's a sad, sad story when a mother would teach her daughter that she oughta hate a perfect stranger." At the Oct. 10 concert, the trio revealed the origin of that passage.
On stage, The Chicks played a clip from the 2006 documentary detailing the controversy surrounding the country outfit, Shut Up and Sing. In the footage, a mother clutches her baby, encouraging the child to chant "screw 'em" in protest of The Chicks objecting to the war.
"The woman in that clip was who we wrote the bridge about, holding her young child trying to get him to say 'screw 'em,'" Martie Maguire revealed onstage.
However, it didn't stop there. Maguire explained that the woman in the footage eventually reached out to them.
"She wrote us a very kind, apologetic letter, and that was sweet. It was something," a bemused Maguire told the audience, who shot back with guffaws.
"Meanwhile, we were 'skanks and bimbos,'" the 57-year-old added.
Fans no longer wanting to "screw 'em" can catch The Chicks on their "Taking the Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour" through November.
