Natalie Louise Maines is an American vocalist who was born on October 14, 1974. She is the lead vocalist for The Chicks, an all-female country band.
Maines was hired by the Dixie Chicks to replace Laura Lynch as lead singer in 1995, after graduating from Berklee College of Music. Between 1998 and 2007, the band won 10 Country Music Association Awards and 13 Grammy Awards with Maines as lead vocalist.
The Dixie Chicks released Taking the Long Way in 2006, with Maines still singing lead. Following that, the record was nominated for five Grammy Awards (including Album of the Year). On July 17, 2020, the Chicks’ album Gaslighter was published. Maines’ first solo album, Mother, was released on May 7, 2013.
Early Years
Natalie Maines was born to country musician and producer Lloyd Maines and Tina May Maines in Lubbock, Texas. Maines went to Nat Williams Elementary School in Lubbock, where her second-grade teacher recalled Maines telling her, “Teacher, I don’t need to study this stuff—I’m going to be a star,” during a math lesson.
Maines was a cheerleader at O. L. Slaton Junior High School and graduated from Lubbock High School in 1992, where she was a member of the choir. Maines has spoken about his upbringing in conservative Texas, saying, “That was something I’d always fought against. Because my parents sent my sister and me to public minority schools, I’ve always felt like a hippie and a renegade.
I used to like not thinking the way the majority of people did when I was a teenager. I’ve always defended minorities, and I’ve always defended homosexuals. I’ve always had very strong convictions in this regard.”
Private Life
Maines married her South Plains College fiancé, bassist Michael Tarabay, in 1997 and went to Nashville, Tennessee with him. They filed for divorce two years later, citing irreconcilable differences.
Maines met actor Adrian Pasdar at bandmate Emily Erwin’s wedding to Charlie Robison in May 1999. Maines and Pasdar tied the knot at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas on June 24, 2000.
Jackson Slade Pasdar (Slade) (born March 15, 2001) and Beckett Finn Pasdar (born March 15, 2001) are their two sons (born July 14, 2004). Maines used the name “Natalie Pasdar” during her marriage. The family lives in three different cities: Los Angeles, Austin, and New York.
Maines filed for divorce from Pasdar in July 2017, alleging irreconcilable differences. In December of this year, the divorce was finalized.
Natalie Maines is a huge admirer of Howard Stern’s Wack Pack and listens to him religiously.
Maines is a Transcendental Meditation practitioner.
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Is Natalia Maines a Lesbian?
Natalie Maines, the former lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, has gone out about her political ideas, stating that she is “pro-gay everything” and considers herself to be progressive.
The singer, who is now promoting her first solo album, told USA today that she is more liberal than people had previously imagined, and that she has long been a supporter of the homosexual community.
“I’m in favor of gay marriage.” “Everything is pro-gay,” she declared. “I’m a pro-choice supporter. I’m probably a liberal in every social aspect. “I’m more liberal than most people believe.”
People may be shocked to hear that, as a result of her Texas upbringing, she has a slight conservative-leaning when it comes to gun control.
“In terms of the gun debate, there’s still some of that Texas in me.” “I wish there were no guns, and I support gun control,” she stated. “However, I’m of the mindset that if nothing changes, I’m going to purchase a gun.”
When Maines declared in 2003 that the Dixie Chicks were “ashamed” that George W Bush was from Texas because of the Iraq war, the band got hate mail and lost followers.
In the United States, her new solo album Mother is now available for purchase.
Career
Maines’ first professional recording was lead vocals on Andy Wilkinson’s album “Charlie Goodnight’s Life in Poetry and Song,” on the song “White Women’s Clothes.” Background vocals on Pat Green’s debut album, Dancehall Dreamer, produced by her father Lloyd Maines and released in 1995, were Maines’ first commercially published work.
Maines joined the Dixie Chicks, an all-female country music band, at the age of 21. The Dixie Chicks had been performing since 1989 but had failed to acquire more than local notoriety. Maines took over for Laura Lynch, the band’s original lead singer. In the band, she performs on guitar and bass in concert.
Maines co-wrote four songs for the Dixie Chicks’ first three albums, including the number one smash “Without You” on Fly, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks list. Maines co-wrote all 14 songs on the band’s 2006 album Taking a Long Way, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The Billboard Hot 100 single “Not Ready to Make Nice” (Maines, Strayer, Erwin, Wilson) from Taking a Long Way reached No. 4 and earned the band a songwriting Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
Maines describes the songwriting she undertook for Taking the Long Way as “pure therapy” following the uproar over a remark she made on stage in London criticizing US President George W. Bush. Maines remarked of the album, “Everything felt more personal this time,” adding, “There’s just more maturity, depth, intellect… [These songs] sound more grown-up.”
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