T. Bubba Bechtol: Enough Already On The Dixie Chicks

He's a 100% bona fide red neck and proud of it, but in the latest "Notes from Bubba's Beach" he says that he at least is 'ready to make nice:'

"I know the Chicks. They are good girls. Martie Seidel, her sister Emily Irvin and Natalie Maines, have grown up, had kids, stayed married to their children's fathers, took their lumps with pride and came back with a roaring album, "Taking the Long Way Home." They have paid enough for words that if said in any other music market would have been forgotten long ago. The Chicks had a right to say what they did. Natalie may have picked the "wrong" place to say it, and the wrong time, but they still have the same rights as the rest of us. We have all been guilty of what Natalie did. I say leave her alone because it was not all three of them that said it, it was Natalie. The mouth, the lead, the entertainer, the Brash one, the learning to be funny one, the one out front. But the other girls had her back. They stayed together, backed her up and while they may personally may have disagreed with her, they never stopped loving her or being a group. I say "Amen" for that. They are not out there getting arrested for drugs, getting married every six months, stealing horses from cops in Central Park, shooting pistols off in motels, dropping babies from windows, or doing stupid things that would make them less than ladies. They stuck together like "Sisters of the Song." They all have a Country Music upbringing, and they are proving that they can be the best at what they do and have personal lives as well. I say they have paid enough for a single sentence that may have proved out to be more right than wrong in the long run. I say they are the best band in my country music market, that I love so much and to tell the truth. Country music will have to catch up with them, because they sell in all markets, overseas, Internet and when Mars opens its first radio station, I say they will be number one in the first week. Why? Because they make great music, and they are loyal to each other and have learned to be entertainers as well as singers. Their personal examples of their private lives far outweigh everything that has been said about them or done to them. They are role models that any young lady can look up to and if I had a daughter, I'd be honored to use them as an example of what she should be."