Natalie Maines

Natalie Louise Maines (born October 14, 1974) is an American singer. She is the lead vocalist for the country band The Chicks. 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. 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). After dropping the "Dixie", the Chicks new album Gaslighter was released on July 17, 2020. As a solo artist, Maines the album, Mother, on May 7, 2013. Early life Maines was born in Lubbock, Texas, to country musician and producer Lloyd Maines and Tina May Maines. She attended Nat Williams Elementary School in Lubbock, where her second grade teacher recalls being told by Maines during a math lesson, "Teacher, I don't need to learn this stuff—I'm gonna be a star." Maines was a cheerleader while attending O. L. Slaton Junior High School, and graduated in 1992 from Lubbock High School where she had participated in the school choir. Maines has described growing up in conservative Texas, saying "I always rebelled against that. My parents sent me and my sister to public minority schools so I always felt like a hippie and a rebel. ... As a teenager I always loved not thinking in the way I knew the majority of people thought. I always stood up for minorities. ... I've always stood up for homosexuals. I just always had these really strong convictions about doing so."