Formerly known as the Dixie Chicks, the country trio, composed of lead singer Natalie Maines, 48, and sisters Martie Maguire, 53, and Emily Strayer, 50, were asked if the politically-charged statement is still a “defining episode” of the group’s career.“It’s defining in the way it set us free,” Maines told the Los Angeles Times. “It got us out of this box of country music, which we never wanted to be in and never felt like that’s who we were.”“We didn’t have to do any of that bulls–t anymore.