The Chicks said their May 2003 Entertainment Weekly cover was meant to put the insults aimed at them on display—not to make nudity the point. The “Dixie Chicks Come Clean” cover followed Natalie Maines’s criticism of President George W. Bush during a London concert, and its words reflected labels other people had used against the group.
What was the “Dixie Chicks Come Clean” cover?
The cover was part of Entertainment Weekly’s May 2, 2003 issue. The magazine published Chris Willman’s cover story online on April 24, so the online publication date and the issue date are different. A 2025 visual-analysis catalog identifies it as issue 27, dated May 2003, and records the cover line as “The Dixie Chicks come clean: Country’s controversial superstars take on their critics.” Entertainment Weekly’s original 2003 story; VISUAL Review’s 2025 cover catalog.
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The trio appeared with words on their bodies, including “Dixie Sluts” and “Sadaam’s Angels”—spelled that way in Entertainment Weekly’s 2025 retrospective. The labels were presented as insults the group had encountered, not as the Chicks’ own descriptions of themselves.
Why did the Chicks pose with the labels?
The original interview says the photo shoot was the band’s idea. Martie Maguire explained that the group wanted to make the excess of the insults visible: “we wanted to show the absurdity of the extreme names people have been calling us.” Maines clarified the distinction between the image and its message: “It’s not about the nakedness. It’s that the clothes got in the way of the labels.” The original interview.
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In a 2025 retrospective, Maguire recalled that people at the shoot tried to tone down the words, but the band wanted them shown in full because, she said, “Those were real things people were writing to us in e-mails and posting on the web.” Entertainment Weekly’s 2025 retrospective.
What had happened before the cover?
On March 10, 2003, while introducing “Travelin’ Soldier” at a London concert, Maines said: “we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.” The comment came as war with Iraq was imminent and triggered a backlash against the group.
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The original story reported that the Chicks apologized on March 14 for disrespecting the office of the presidency. In the interview, Maines said she did not regret criticizing the war. The group’s follow-up statement, reproduced in the 2025 retrospective, defended Americans’ right to express a point of view, said the band supported the troops, and objected to the prospect of war and innocent deaths. These positions are related but distinct: the apology concerned respect for the presidency, while Maines maintained her opposition to the war.
How did the band remember the shoot?
In the 2025 retrospective, Emily Robison described it as “the most bold thing as a person and as a band we had ever done.” She also recalled, “I felt like we knew the gravity of that shoot while it was happening.” Maguire remembered that their publicist tried to talk them out of it. Both musicians later stood by the choice. Entertainment Weekly, August 13, 2025.
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How did the backlash affect the group?
Entertainment Weekly reported in April 2003 that the Chicks’ songs had disappeared from some country-radio playlists and that album sales had fallen during the controversy. The article attributed its sales account to manager Simon Renshaw; those figures should be understood as figures reported at the time, not as independently audited measurements. The 2025 retrospective says some country stations still refuse to play the group’s music, but does not quantify the claim.
People quoted in the 2003 story disagreed about what the reaction meant for the band and its future in country music. Those were contemporary industry opinions, not proof of a settled or permanent outcome. The cover’s best-documented meaning remains the one the musicians themselves gave it: they wanted to show the language being used against them.
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