The Chicks Trivia
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50 free The Chicks trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This The Chicks trivia quiz covers the band that spent most of its life as the Dixie Chicks: sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, singer Natalie Maines, and the bluegrass busking years in Dallas before them. The easy questions cover the landmarks most country fans know: where the band comes from, the two diamond albums, the biggest No. 1 singles, and the sentence Natalie Maines said on a London stage in March 2003 that got them blacklisted by country radio. The harder half is for the fans who owned Thank Heavens for Dale Evans: where the original name came from, the two singers who preceded Maines, the fiddle championships, the Sony royalty lawsuit, the Rick Rubin album that swept the 2007 Grammys, the Court Yard Hounds, the Beyoncé and Taylor Swift collaborations, and why they finally dropped the word Dixie in 2020. Nothing here quotes a lyric; the questions are about the people, records and stories. Every answer was checked against The Chicks' encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our country music and 90s music quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Chicks were founded in 1989 in which Texas city?
Dallas
The Erwin sisters were raised in nearby Addison and had played in a bluegrass group called Blue Night Express.
Q 02Which sisters founded the band and remain its two original members?
Martie and Emily Erwin
Both married and changed their names twice, ending up as Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer.
Q 03Besides vocals, what instrument did Natalie Maines mainly bring when she joined the band in 1995?
Guitar
Unlike her predecessor she was not an acoustic bassist, playing acoustic and electric guitar and occasionally electric bass instead.
Q 04The name Dixie Chicks was taken from an album by which musician?
Lowell George of Little Feat
The album was Dixie Chicken; the band later called it 'that stupid name' they picked as teenagers.
Q 05What was the title of the band's self-produced 1990 debut album?
Thank Heavens for Dale Evans
Named after the singing cowgirl actress, the 14-track record cost the band $5,000 to make.
Q 06Wide Open Spaces and Fly gave the band a distinction no other female band of any genre holds. What is it?
Back-to-back diamond albums
Fly debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 10 million copies.
Q 07Which record label signed the trio in 1995, making them the first new artist on the revived imprint?
Monument Records
Their debut single 'I Can Love You Better' reached No. 7 on the country chart in late 1997.
Q 08At which London venue did Natalie Maines say in 2003 that the band was ashamed the US president was from Texas?
Shepherd's Bush Empire
Country radio dropped the band and members received death threats; she returned to the same stage in 2006 and repeated the line to laughter.
Q 09Which 2006 single, co-written with Dan Wilson, won both Song and Record of the Year?
Not Ready to Make Nice
Emily Strayer said writing it became the band's 'therapy' after three years of stored emotion.
Q 10Which producer, better known for Johnny Cash and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, made Taking the Long Way?
Rick Rubin
The Chicks co-wrote every song, some with Neil Finn of Crowded House.
Q 11At the 2007 Grammys the band won how many awards, sweeping every category in which they were nominated?
Five
It had been 14 years since any artist swept Song, Record and Album of the Year.
Q 12Which social-media description of the Confederate flag helped prompt the band's 2020 name change?
'The Dixie Swastika'
They also got the blessing of a New Zealand duo already called the Chicks to share the name.
Q 13Which producer made Gaslighter, the band's first album in 14 years?
Jack Antonoff
Columbia released it in July 2020, weeks after the name change and the protest single 'March March'.
Q 21What was the name of the 2010 duo formed by Martie and Emily during the band's hiatus?
Court Yard Hounds
Emily sang lead; their second album, Amelita, followed in 2013.
Q 22At the 2016 CMA Awards the band performed 'Daddy Lessons' with which star?
Beyoncé
A studio version was released the next day; three years later they sang on Taylor Swift's 'Soon You'll Get Better'.
Q 23On which Taylor Swift album do the Chicks appear, on 'Soon You'll Get Better'?
Lover
The 2019 collaboration came ahead of the band's own comeback album.
Q 14'Cowboy Take Me Away' was written by Martie to celebrate whose wedding?
Emily's, to Charlie Robison
The wedding took place three months before Fly was released; Emily and Robison divorced in 2008.
Q 15Which actor played the murdered abusive husband in the 'Goodbye Earl' video?
Dennis Franz
Some radio stations pulled the black-comedy song, along with 'Sin Wagon' and its 'mattress dancing' line.
Q 16'Ready to Run' appeared on the soundtrack of which 1999 Garry Marshall film?
Runaway Bride
The soundtrack also carried the band's cover of the Supremes' 'You Can't Hurry Love'.
Q 17'Landslide', a top-ten hit from Home, was a cover of a song by which band?
Fleetwood Mac
It fell from No. 10 to No. 43 in a single week after the 2003 remark on stage.
Q 18Who co-produced the 2002 album Home with the band?
Lloyd Maines
Natalie later joked about checking how many fathers and daughters had won Grammys together.
Q 19Before Home, the band sued Sony over royalties. What imprint did they win in the settlement?
Open Wide Records
They alleged fraudulent accounting had underpaid them at least $4 million over three years.
Q 20Which documentary filmmaker made Shut Up and Sing, about the three years after the London remark?
Barbara Kopple
NBC and the CW refused to run ads for it, citing policies on 'public controversy'.
Q 24Which original member, the band's upright bassist, died in a road collision in December 2023?
Laura Lynch
She had taken over lead vocals when Macy left in 1992 and departed herself before the Sony signing.
Q 25Founding guitarist Robin Lynn Macy left in 1992 for what reason?
She wanted a purer bluegrass sound
Little Ol' Cowgirl had moved the band toward contemporary country with session musicians and bigger arrangements.
Q 26Martie placed in the national championships for her instrument at which Kansas event in 1987 and 1989?
Walnut Valley Festival
She took second and then third; the band later won 'best band' at Telluride in 1990.
Q 27Emily Strayer's main instruments are banjo and Dobro. What is Martie Maguire's primary instrument?
Fiddle
Martie also plays mandolin and viola, and won national placings on her main instrument as a teenager.
Q 28Whose $10,000 gift in 1990 paid for the band's first album?
A US senator's daughter
Penny Cook was the daughter of Texas senator John Tower.
Q 29Wide Open Spaces was certified how many times platinum in March 2020?
13×
It also went quadruple platinum in Canada, where all five singles made the top ten.
Q 30Which 1998 Country Music Association prize for new artists did the band win?
The Horizon Award
The same season Wide Open Spaces won the Grammy for Best Country Album.