In 1995, after leaving the 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 ten Country Music Association Awards and seven Grammy Awards for their work between 1998 and 2003.
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 a loss of standing in the country music industry for the Dixie Chicks. Boycotts by country music radio stations and death threats hindered the band's continued success. In 2006, with Maines still acting as lead singer, the Dixie Chicks released a "come back" album, Taking the Long Way. The album subsequently won five Grammys in an act some see as vindication for the shunned band and lead singer.
EARLY LIFE
Maines was born on October 14, 1974 in Lubbock, Texas to country musician and producer Lloyd Maines and his wife Tina Maines. She attended Matt 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."
Following the completion of high school, Maines attended several colleges. She spent two semesters pursuing an undeclared major at West Texas A&M where her studies focused heavily on radio, then a year and a half at South Plains College. One of Maines' instructors at South Plains, and a former member of The Maines Brothers Band, Cary Banks, recalled "She was mostly into rock'n'roll, rhythm and blues... alternative rock." When Banks encountered Maines on campus, he said that she usually needed to vent a little steam. "She would get into a lot of political arguments" at the predominantly Republican school, and was a fan of Democratic Texas Governor Ann Richards. "She's always been opinionated and hardheaded like her dad." In December 1994, Maines auditioned for and received a vocal scholarship to Berklee College of Music. She pursued the diploma program at Berklee and left upon completion of her studies. Even though Maines is from Lubbock, home of Texas Tech University, she attended only one class at the school, a 1995 summer course entitled "Introductory Wildlife.
personal life
In 1997, Maines married her South Plains College boyfriend, bassist Michael Tarabay, who worked for the Dixie Chicks as a driver and roadie. Almost two years later, Maines and Tarabay filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
Maines met actor Adrian Pasdar in June 1999, and they married on June 24, 2000 at The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada for fifty-five dollars. They have two children, Jackson Slade Pasdar (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, California and Austin, Texas.
