When The Chicks perform the National Anthem tonight at the DNC, they’ll bring a complicated history

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The Chicks — formerly known as The Dixie Chicks — will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night. That performance, and the group’s presence, will provide the latest chapter in The Chicks’ long and complicated political history.

The Chicks were once one of the biggest names in country music, as the band’s breakthrough albums — 1998’s Wide Open Spaces and 1999’s Fly — each achieved the Recording Industry Association of America’s coveted diamond status, signifying sales of more than 10 million copies each.

Then, in 2003, during the run-up to the U.S. war with Iraq, singer Natalie Maines told a crowd in London that the band opposed both the war and then-President George W. Bush.

“We do not want this war, this violence,” Maines said at a Chicks concert, adding, “and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”

The moment sparked backlash against The Chicks in the U.S., spearheaded by many of the country radio stations whose playlists the group had once dominated. Though Maines issued an apology — which she rescinded a few years later — the band remained largely alienated from the country-music industry, whose collective sentiment toward the war tended toward songs that expressed belligerence (Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue [The Angry American]”), called for action (Darryl Worley’s “Have You Forgotten?”) or reflected mournfully on the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks (Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You [When the World Stopped Turning]”).

The Chicks’ 2006 album

Taking the Long Way

That year, The Chicks dropped the