Trivia / The Chicks

• Chart Displacement: "Goodbye Earl" only got to #13 on the country music charts, and is only their fourth-highest ranking hit on the Hot 100. Relatedly, neither "Landslide" nor "Long Time Gone" got to #1 on the country charts, despite being among their biggest hits overall.
• Creator Backlash: According to Natalie Maines on Twitter, she dislikes the band's first #1 hit, "There's Your Trouble".
• Cut Song: Fly was supposed to have a duet with Deryl Dodd titled "Wherever You Are", but when Dodd came down with encephalitis before being able to finish the track, it was removed instead.
• Distanced from Current Events: The band was known for a long time as The Dixie Chicks but removed the "Dixie" due to the reference to the Antebellum Southern United States in the wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020. It was one of two country music bands who changed their names, with Lady Antebellum changing their names to Lady A.
• The Pete Best: Robin Lynn Macy and Laura Lynch, both of whom split lead vocals in the original lineup. Macy left in 1993 over Creative Differences, and Lynch quit on good terms because she wanted to raise a family instead. Natalie Maines then replaced her, and with her on lead, they went on to mainstream success.
• Real-Life Relative: Adrian Pasdar, who played one of the police officers in the "Goodbye Earl" music video, was Natalie Maines's husband from 2000 to 2017. The acrimonious breakup was alluded to in "Gaslighter".
• Release Date Change: Gaslighter was pushed back two months from May to July 2020 because of logistical issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact: Only five years of hit-making, but album shipments of 28 million and six #1 hits.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sons of the Desert had recorded "Goodbye Earl" first, and wanted to release their version first, but the Chicks claimed the song, resulting in a dispute that punted Sons from their label
  • "Truth No. 2" was supposed to be the fourth single off Home, but it was axed due to the backlash over the band at the time — the lyric "You don't like the sound of the truth coming from my mouth" definitely would not have sat well in the wake of Maines's comment.

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