10 Questions for Natalie Maines

The last time you were in TIME, you were on the cover with the Dixie Chicks. Then nothing for seven years. What have you been doing?
I’ve been being a mother. Raising my two boys Slade and Beckett with my husband Adrian.

Is that why you called your new album Mother?
I felt like it was a word that everyone would have some sort of emotion about, because everyone has a mother. So it would make people feel something–good or bad.

So the song “Free Life” is about your life now?
For me it’s about the West Memphis Three, three guys who were wrongfully convicted of murder 20 years ago. I was really involved with the [campaign to release the] West Memphis Three in this time off from music. I put the song on the album to mark that.

Now that you’re making music, will you cut back on activism?
I’m not out looking for a cause. They sort of find me, or find my heart. But sure, there’s always time for that. My big mouth can talk all the time.

Has the controversy around your speaking out against President Bush and the Iraq war died down now?
I sort of disappeared, so I wasn’t on people’s minds. I do worry a bit: Do I want to get back on people’s minds?

In 2007 the Dixie Chicks became the only band to win the three biggest Grammy Awards in one night, for Taking the Long Way. It sold 2 million copies. Yet you’ve released nothing since. Why?
Many reasons. Being a Dixie Chick and being on the road is not, for me, conducive to being a good parent. But also, after the Grammys that night, something just felt like the ending of a battle, and I was victorious, and I was walking away. Country music is not something I’m dying to get back into. I really feel like I have a busy, fulfilled life.

So no more Dixie Chicks?
We have four shows this summer in Canada. We’re always up for playing live. But no new music on the horizon.

How do [bandmates] Emily and Martie feel about reuniting?
They’d probably be up for it before I would. But they understand. It’s just–country music turned out to be everything I thought it was when I was a kid, and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

If the country-music establishment had stood by you more when you made those remarks, would you be less reluctant?
Yeah, that definitely had something to do with it. It was really a disappointment to me to see that all the stereotypes I had about country music were really there. Luckily our audience extends beyond that, but for me to delve back into country music just feels dishonest, compromised.

Your husband Adrian Pasdar is an actor who plays a lot of superheroes and dodgy lawyers. What role would you like to see him in?
I think he’s actually comedic and nobody knows it. Yesterday on the plane I saw my first five episodes of 30 Rock. I’m the last person on earth to see it. Adrian would have been perfect in the Alec Baldwin role. That is Adrian. He’s always in a suit, always blamed for something.

Your hair is reminding me of some other singer.
Well, Justin Bieber. But also Miley Cyrus. I’m good with all those people’s hair.