Dixie Chicks are planning their return with Gaslighter—their first studio album in 14 years—and the country trio just dropped the title track. Following an extended hiatus, this marks the group’s first release since George W. Bush’s administration.
Co-produced alongside Jack Antonoff, their latest single alludes to lead singer Natalie Maines’ rocky divorce from Heroes star, Adrian Pasdar. While there’s no name-check in sight, the lyrics point to the estranged actor:
We moved to California and we followed your dreams
I believed in the promises you made to me
Swore that night ‘til death do us part
But you lie-lie-lie-lie-lied
Hollywood welcomed you with open doors
No matter what they gave you, you still wanted more
Acting all above it when our friends divorced
During Maines’ divorce proceedings, Pasdar requested the court hand him access to the country star’s unreleased music in August. He claimed that her songwriting might violate a confidentiality clause in their prenup—even though he previously argued that the agreement was invalid. They finalized their divorce back in December.
According to Yahoo, the actor previously demanded that Maines pay him $60,000 a month in support. The lyrics don’t mince words about financial issues:
You thought I wouldn’t see it if you put it in my face
Give you all my money, you’ll gladly walk away
You think it’s justifiable, I think it’s pretty cruel
And you know you lie best when you lie to you
“I had a lot to say,” Maines said on the Spiritualgasm podcast last year. “Songwriting is really hard for me, and I think for many years, I didn’t want to analyze my life or my relationship. I was just in it and dedicated and devoted, and if I had started writing songs about it… I don’t want to say I was in a ‘survival mode,’ but I was just not ready to open up like that.”
At the time, she elaborated that the band planned on releasing a covers album. “Real easy, turn it in, get the money, be free agents,” she said. “But then my relationship fell apart, and I had a lot to say.”
Gaslighter follows 2006’s Taking the Long Way, which confronted the backlash to their comments on then-president Bush. During a 2003 concert in London, the Lubbock, Texas native addressed the crowd: “We don’t want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”
Rick Rubin, who produced “Not Ready to Make Nice,” spoke about the blow-up in a Verified annotation on Genius:
The controversy followed them a decade later, as conservative country fans lashed out at their performance with Beyoncé at the CMAs ceremony in 2016.
“Our last album was the most personal and autobiographical we’ve ever been,” the lead singer said on the podcast. “And then this one is 10 times that.”
Gaslighter counts as the Chicks’ last LP under their seven-album contract with Sony. As Genius user @pinkliability points out, they previously worked with Antonoff when they sang backing vocals on Taylor Swift’s 2019 cut, “Soon You’ll Get Better.”
Maines spoke about working with the pop producer in an interview with Beats 1’s Zane Lowe. “It was the first song we wrote with Jack Antonoff,” she said. “At the time, we thought we were gonna write with a bunch of different people and get different producers and we wrote with him and we’re like, ‘He needs to produce it and this needs to be the sound for this album.’ ‘Cause it was just, he blew us away, and it was such a fun song to start with.”
Watch the music video above, and read all the lyrics to “Gaslighter” on Genius now.
