American singer-songwriter and activist who achieved success as the lead vocalist for the female alternative country band the Dixie Chicks. Maines considers herself a rebel who “loved not thinking in the way I knew the majority of people thought.” In 1995, after leaving Berklee College of Music, Maines was recruited by the Dixie Chicks to replace their lead singer, Laura Lynch. With Maines as lead vocalist, the band earned 10 Country Music Association Awards and 13 Grammy Awards for their work between 1998 and 2007.
On the eve of the Iraq invasion, while in concert in London for the 2003 Top of the World Tour, Maines commented that the Dixie Chicks were “ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.” Negative public reaction in the United States to this comment resulted in boycotts by country music radio stations and death threats.
In 2006, with Maines still acting as lead singer, the Dixie Chicks released Taking the Long Way. The album subsequently won five Grammy Awards (including Album of the Year). Maines released her solo album, Mother, on 7 May 2013.
In 1997, Maines married her South Plains College boyfriend, bassist Michael Tarabay, and the couple moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Almost two years after they married, they filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
Maines met actor Adrian Pasdar in May 1999 at the wedding of bandmate Emily Erwin to Charlie Robison. Maines and Pasdar married on June 24, 2000, at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. They have two sons, Jackson Slade Pasdar (Slade) (born March 15, 2001) and Beckett Finn Pasdar (born July 14, 2004). She has referred to herself as “Natalie Pasdar”. The family has homes in Los Angeles, Austin, and New York City. In July 2017, Maines filed for divorce from Pasdar, citing irreconcilable differences.
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