Using a 33,000-pound tractor to obliterate compact discs and other items, a few hundred protesters in Bossier City, La., referring to themselves as backers of U.S. President George Bush and Barksdale

Using a 33,000-pound tractor to obliterate compact discs and other items, a few hundred protesters in Bossier City, La., referring to themselves as backers of U.S. President George Bush and Barksdale Air Force Base, lashed back at Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Texas-based country act the Dixie Chicks, over a recent comment.

Maines reportedly told a London audience last week, in reference to Bush's push for military action against Iraq, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

The protesters Saturday night in Bossier City were largely country music fans, some of them recent fans of the Dixie Chicks. "Until they made that statement, I was glad to listen to them," said Rusty Sullivan, adding that his company has been flooded with requests to strip Dixie Chicks songs from the jukeboxes it operates.

Radio stations nationwide are boycotting the Dixie Chicks, even though Maines publicly apologized for her statement in London. In Kansas City, Mo., WDAF-AM set trashcans outside its offices for listeners to toss their Dixie Chicks CDs. Its Web site displayed more than 800 listener E-mails, most of them in support of the station's boycott.

After more than 250 listeners called Friday to complain about Maines' comments, WTDR-FM in Talladega, Ala., dropped the Dixie Chicks.

"The emotion of the callers telling us about their fathers and sons and brothers who are overseas now and who fought in previous wars was very specific," said Jim Jacobs, president of Jacobs Broadcast Group, which includes WTDR.


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