BBC NEWS | Springsteen backs under-fire Dixies (Monday, 28 April, 2003)

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Springsteen backs under-fire Dixies: "Bruce Springsteen has given his support to country band the Dixie Chicks, who have faced severe criticism over a comment they made about President George Bush.
The Dixie Chicks received death threats, had their records burned and were removed from radio playlists after singer Natalie Maines said she was embarrassed that Bush was from her home state of Texas.
But Springsteen said the band were merely expressing their 'right to free speech' and had received a 'raw deal' from critics.

We are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq

In a message on his official website, the star said: 'To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech.
'For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American.'
The three members of the band - Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison - recently appeared on the front cover of popular magazine Entertainment Weekly in the nude.

The band recently posed for US magazine Entertainment Weekly
The singers' bodies were daubed with words and slogans that have been aimed at them in recent weeks, including 'brave', 'traitor' and 'Saddam's angels'.
In a recent interview with US network ABC, Maines said she regretted her comment but remained passionately against the war. "