Not Ready to Make Nice

When Natalie Maines remarked at a London concert on March 10, 2003 that she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," the Dixie Chicks were dropped from playlists at many radio stations and subjected to attacks on their character, even death threats. This song finds them standing up for themselves and refusing to back down from their statements. They might be willing to forgive at some point, but they're never going to forget.

Dan Wilson from the group Semisonic wrote this song with the Dixie Chicks. The collaboration came about when Rick Rubin, who was working with Wilson on his 2005 solo album Free Life and also on the Chicks' album Taking The Long Way, teamed them up. Wilson drove from Los Angeles to Santa Monica, on the way thinking up an idea for a song called "Undivided," which would find the trio singing about the things that unite Americans. When Wilson shared the idea during their first songwriting session, Natalie Maines asked, "Does that mean that in the song, we would have to forgive all the people that screwed us?" "For the song, maybe," Wilson replied. "Nope." With a clear idea of what they were looking for, Wilson started working on what became "Not Ready to Make Nice."

Emily Robison said: "The stakes were definitely higher on that song. We knew it was special because it was so autobiographical, and we had to get it right. We've all gone through so many emotions about the incident. We talked for days with Dan before putting pen to paper, and he really helped get inside our heads and put these feelings out. And once we had this song done, it freed us up to do the rest of the album without that burden." Natalie Maines added: "We tried to write about the incident a few times, but you get nervous that you're being too preachy or too victimized or too nonchalant. Dan came in with an idea that was some kind of concession, more 'can't we all just get along?' and I said, nope, I can't say that, can't do it. And we talked about it, and he said, what about "I'm not ready to make nice?" From the outside, normal people really weren't aware of how bizarre and absurd it got. Dan was really good at clueing in to that, saying something that didn't back down, but still had a vulnerability to it. This album was therapy. To write these songs allowed me to find peace with everything and move on." (quotes from a publicity release)