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The Dixie Chicks participated in an AOL Live chat on
September 8, 1999.
Online Host:
Entertainment Asylum and America Online are proud to welcome the Dixie Chicks. Martie, Emily and Natalie will be here to discuss
their new album, "Fly"!
Question: You all seem to enjoy what you do. Is this what you have always desired to do, and
are you really having as much fun as you appear on your videos and in concert?
Dixie Chicks: Well, I would
say yes, for the most part, to that, just because we try and make things... and we wanted a fun treatment for it. We've been
having a good time and as far as what we've always wanted to do, it's all we can do. We're not very good actresses so it's
all real. If it's not acting goofy, we can't do it.
Question: I've become big fans of you all since the release
of your first album! I love the song "Let Him Fly." Are you going to release this as a single?
Martie Seidel:
We never know what our singles are going to be until we hear crowd reaction, and on the first album we chose them from e-mail
response. There's voting on our official website. "Earl" is what the fans want so we think that will be the next single. It's
not official, and I think they like "Cowboy Take Me Away."
Question: What's the one thing you all hate about
being famous?
Natalie Maines: Tabloids! We just found out that I've gained 25 pounds.
Emily Robison:
But she's happy about it.
Natalie Maines: I'm sick and getting divorced, and I've had all sorts of boyfriends and
finding time to eat in the meantime. I'm not getting divorced.
Martie Seidel: The funny thing is that Emily and me
get off scott free.
Emily Robison: There's one of our previous lead singer and she's a millionnaire now, and they're
saying oh, she got you guys back. I'm just like, God forbid we go on vacation and there's somebody waiting. And there's another
one, Shania has cellulite! Like any woman doesn't? Who reads these things? So, to answer that question, that's one of the
hardest things. Reading bad press. And the people who do write us great letters and give us all the positive reinforcement
is great because there will always be somebody trying to break you down, and we believe in ourselves, and that's the best
part of letting all that stuff roll off our backs.
Question: How did you get discovered?
Emily
Robison: We were together for about 8 years before being approached by a record company, and that was due to our manager at
the time who had friends at Sony. And one of our producers came to see us in Austin, Texas, and just did a showcase and took
little baby steps from there.
Martie Seidel: We had a lot of interest from Sony, and the only legitimate offer came
from them.
Emily Robison: That
was the first label we actually went after with a manager. We had a lot of press kits and when Natalie joined that was the
first one we felt strongly about, and it was nice that we didn't have to beg and plead a lot of people at that time.
EAMusic1:
The Dixie Chicks have a new website at www.dixiechicks.com.
Question: My question is that since you guys (Dixie Chicks) are so popular and wonderful, do you guys ever get time
to be alone and just have quiet moments?
Dixie Chicks: It's a great question.
Martie Seidel: It's
really hard to. It's especially hard for me because I have a husband and five-year-old that I miss when I'm gone. When I'm
home I want to spend every minute with my son, and I forget that I need rest and to recoup. I think that's one thing I regret
about the last few years, I haven't found a way to stop the insanity because your brain is just working all the time. I think
we're workaholics because we love it so much.
Natalie Maines: I'm the opposite of that. We definitely get a lot of
sleep on the bus and we get our own hotel rooms, and I'm getting good and being normal and doing what I want to do and visiting
my mother. My mom's getting real good at being my security guard. I walk into a restaurant and people come up to me and she
goes, we're trying to have a meal here. We want to be nice to everyone so it can be difficult, but if you have the right frame
of mind, it's pretty good.
Emily Robison: I picked San Antonio to live because it's just a great place to decompress,
and on the road we can get away from each other through the course of the day to work or work out and go to our rooms.
Natalie
Maines: The most important thing we learned this year is to say no. We didn't know how to do that before.
Question:
Do you all have chicken's feet on your feet for every #1 single you make?
Dixie Chicks: Showing the feet!
Yeah, well, we'll go onto Emily's feet if we run out of room because she wears size 10s!
Natalie Maines: We already
have three and on our way to four, and so we're going to have so many chick feet.
Emily Robison: When [were] old ladies
and our skin is running over our toes, we'll just tuck them over.
Question: On "Fly," where did you come up
with the idea for "Goodbye Earl"?
Dixie Chicks: Well, we didn't write that song. Natalie Maines: I love the very first time
you do it, because you sit there and think this is a little bit deep and I don't know if we want to touch this subject, and
then it comes to the good part and we all jump up and say, we want to do it! Emily Robison: You hear about these fights
that come up because of the song and these debates going on on the radio and people calling up saying, I can't believe they're
singing about that. Then another person says, my sister got beat by her boyfriend. And it's just great to see people actually
discussing this. Question: How long have you all known each other?
Martie Seidel: I met Emily
when I was three, and I have pictures of me powdering her bottom when she was very young. She was like my alive doll that
I would play with and abuse. LOL! And we met Natalie 6 years ago through her father, who is a world-famous steel guitar player
out of Texas. He played on some of our independent albums before Natalie joined us, and he had been in the music business
and had always given us advice. We had dinner at his house, and Natalie wouldn't come to our shows 'cause she'd be out doing
something cooler. Then she begged to be in the group! LOL! NO! Natalie Maines: I had that itch to wear polyester.
Martie Seidel: We all feel like sisters, and Natalie has a sister of her own, and when you grow up with sisters you
learn how to bond with other females. Question: Hey, first of all, I would like to say that you all are the
best. I wanted to know if you had a fan club. Also, do you respond to fan mail?
Dixie Chicks: We don't have
a fan club because the Internet is an easier and faster and more productive way to reach fans. So we get more fan mail than
we can ever read. And we really appreciate it. I think everyone gets a response. But we do get pictures taken on the road,
and we always want to stay in touch with the fans, and we base a lot of how we choose songs and things we do based on them.
We try to read everything we can, but there is a guest book that we hope everyone will sign onto because you'll get info if
you give us your e-mail address! www.dixiechicks.com!
Emily Robison: That's one of my regrets, is that we remain very hands-on, but we used to write everyone back, and we're
still going to try to do that with the website and write with our own hands, but that's hard when you get bigger and can't
do all that.
Natalie Maines: We debated whether to have a fan club, and it's really not the best way to get info to
fans, and the website is so much faster, and with fan clubs you have to pay to join.
Question: Where do you
girls get your clothes?
Natalie Maines: We have a stylist, Renee Fowler, and she's awesome, and that's one
of the perks of being in this business. We get free stuff! Pamela Dennis designs, anything we want! We get makeup and shoes
from people. It's awesome! We get all the leftovers! LOL! We love to shop. We always find moments to go shopping and stuff.
We love to dress up and get really into clothes and makeup. We tore it up in Chicago! LOL!
Question: Do you
all ever get into fights or squabbles?
Natalie Maines: It's weird, we used to. I'd say one happened every
6 months. Now we don't. We're way more supportive and trusting of each other and totally support each other. If someone's
having a bad day and doesn't feel like doing an interview, we don't resent them and just say, I'm sure I'll have my day. It's
just so much fun, we celebrate together and when something bad happens, we get to blame someone. LOL!
Emily Robison:
It's such a Pollyanna story because it used to be harder. We used to have to share a room and we flipped a coin with who would
have to sleep with me because I snore.
Natalie Maines: I remember why we love having our own rooms, because I used
to stay up watching TV and they'd say, can't you shut that off now? And the three of us would be in a room together, and just
having your own space makes you really enjoy each other better.
Martie Seidel: Somebody could abuse that in the group
and I don't feel like we do. I think we have a lot of respect for each other.
Emily Robison: We're not allowed to
open a new clothing box from our stylist unless Martie's there! LOL!
Martie Seidel: She's trying to open this box
with this free stuff and I'm saying, let's wait for Emily, and Natalie says, no way, she wouldn't wait for me. And I find
that the box had already been opened and sealed up again! LOL!
Question: I was wondering, who were your influences
growing up?
Emily Robison: They vary so much between all of us. Martie and I have a lot of the same because
we're sisters.
Natalie Maines: It would be my dad, just in the whole music industry and music period. Even in the
studio, we just know musically what each other wants to do and then musically, just inspiration for music, is James Taylor.
The first time I've ever seen him, and now I've seen him 7 times, but the first time just moved me to tears, and I knew right
then I had to fight to get there because I knew what I wanted to do.
Martie Seidel: My parents really inspired me
from an early age, and my mom encouraged me and my dad got me into country music. Then a lot of fiddle players, Chubby Wise
and Mark O'Connor, and our parents took us to festivals where I got to see jam sessions with great fiddle players. I hope
someday I could encourage kids the way I was encouraged.
Question: When do you plan your next tour?
Natalie
Maines: We're planning it right now. We just played our last show in North America, and we do three more shows in Australia.
Then we're starting another in June. I'm sure we'll be in a town near you. I know we're going to Fargo, North Dakota, so if
we're going there, we're going everywhere! LOL!
Question: When is your video due out?
Martie
Seidel: We're shooting it the first week of October, so it's going to be a couple weeks after that probably. It's probably
going to be "Earl," we're not sure. We're looking! We've become friends with Sheryl Crow, and she's going to help us get some
actors to play Earl. We want Dwight Yoakam to be Earl! He'd be really good. So we're looking into all of that right now.
EAMusic1: Be sure to buy the new Dixie Chicks CD, "Fly," in stores now! Thank you all!
Dixie
Chicks: Bye, everyone!
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