Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice - Lyrics Meaning

This song was inspired by a threat which the Dixie Chicks received after making a statement at a concert about President Bush. They said that they are "ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." This statement would prove to be very unpopular and caused their music to be pulled from many radio stations and also caused them to receive numerous death threats as well. The lyrics in this song are their response to this reaction and the threats which were received on their lives as a result. The song was written by the Dixie chicks as well as Dan Wilson who they enlisted to help because they knew that they "had to get it right."

The lyrics to this song are an autobiography of how they felt in the aftermath of this situation and explain the many emotions which they felt at the time. When writing the song originally they wanted to write a song along the lines of `can't we all just get along' and from there they came up with the idea for the name of the song `Not Ready to Make Nice'. They admit that writing this song was a form of `therapy' for them and helped them to "find peace with everything and move on."