Dixie Chick defiant over anti-war stand

Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines, whose criticism of President George Bush last year led to death threats and boycotts of the group’s music, has reaffirmed her anti-war stance in a TV interview.

“I think people were misled and I think people are fighting a war that they didn’t know they were going to be fighting,” Maines said on NBC’s Today Show.

“And I think they were misled by people who should have been asking questions and weren’t.”

The country band faced criticism and even death threats after Maines said she and her bandmates were ashamed that Bush was from Texas. She made the remark in London shortly before the Iraq war began.

Although Maines apologised for the phrasing of her remark, some radio stations banned the group's music.

Maines said yesterday she did not feel vindicated by how the war had unfolded: “I would have liked to have been proven wrong,” she said.

The band’s recent concert tour was one of the year’s most successful, but Maines said it was too early to predict the long-term fallout.

On the anti-war backlash, she said, “We like making music and we’ll continue to do that whether people buy it or not.”

The Dixie Chicks yesterday released, Top Of The World Tour Live, their double CD set and DVD.