Didn't Hank Williams Jr. get fired for this?

CinnamonGirl wrote:

Science Chic wrote:

CinnamonGirl wrote: Few in Hollywood are going to be upset. Jeez, the dixie chics got awards for what they said.

Hardly.
The Dixie Chicks got banned from country radio stations, had their CDs burned, were vilified in the press, and were pretty much cast out from the Nashville music scene for what they said - it effectively ruined their career. They've only produced one album and done one tour since their comment, which was eerily similar to what Hank Jr said, only about a different president.

And no, I don't agree with what happened to him either. The TV execs were looking for an excuse to get rid of him, and this was the only pathetic one they could find.

Then how did they get a grammy?

The Grammy's are not Country radio-sponsored. Their sales were strong due to their songs being played on pop stations. The Grammy awards were for their success on the pop charts, although I wouldn't deny that there was probably politics involved in their nominations and support, but they didn't win for what they said, but rather for their music (or I'd figure that their fellow competitors would've been pissed that a political statement got them a win at a music awards show 3 years after the fact).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks

The comment by Maines angered many country music fans and was financially damaging. Following the uproar and the start of a boycott of Dixie Chicks' music, which, in turn, caused the Chicks' cover of the Stevie Nicks song "Landslide" to fall sharply from No. 10 down to 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single week. It dropped out of the entire chart the following week. While some people were disappointed that Maines apologized at all, others still dropped their support of Dixie Chicks (including their sponsor Lipton). In one famous anti-Dixie Chicks display, former fans were encouraged to bring their CDs to a demonstration at which they would be crushed by a bulldozer. In one poll by an Atlanta radio station, 76 percent listeners who participated responded "if I could, I'd take my CDs back".

Meanwhile, the Chicks were preparing for their nationwide Top of the World Tour; some general death threats led them to install metal detectors at the shows. (While this was an over-reaction, you don't hear of any death threats being made to Hank Jr for his comments)

A Colorado radio station suspended two of its disc jockeys on May 6 for playing music by the Dixie Chicks. In a September 2003 interview, band member Martie Maguire told the German magazine Der Spiegel: "We don't feel a part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home anymore." She noted a lack of support from country stars, and being shunned at the 2003 ACM Awards. "Instead, we won three Grammys against much stronger competition. So we now consider ourselves part of the big rock 'n' roll family." The same year, the American Red Cross refused a $1 million promotional partnership from the Dixie Chicks.

2006: Taking the Long Way debuted at number one on both the U.S. pop albums chart and the U.S. country albums chart, selling 526,000 copies in the first week (the year's second-best such total for any country act) and making it a gold record within its first week, despite having little or no airplay in areas that had once embraced them. The Chicks became the first female band in chart history to have three albums debut at No. 1.[76]

Both "Not Ready to Make Nice" and second single "Everybody Knows" were largely ignored by U.S. country radio[77] and failed to penetrate the top 35 of the Hot Country Songs chart.

The band's Accidents & Accusations Tour began in July 2006. Ticket sales were strong in Canada and in some Northeastern markets, but notably weak in other areas. A number of shows were canceled or relocated to smaller venues due to poor sales, and in Houston, Texas, tickets never even went on sale when local radio stations refused to accept advertising for the event.

Look at their awards - they dried up after the 2003 controversy, except for the Grammy's for their 2006 album, 3 years after the incident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aw ... xie_Chicks