Bumps & Bruises
The Dixie Chicks
bySteve Stewart

October 6, 1992, I was the featured keynote speaker at a conference in Austin Texas. I had done keynotes before and have done them since, but this was different. This time, the client had arranged for an opening musical act. Not just any act - it was The Dixie Chicks, the Grammy winning country singing group eight years later.

In 1992, they were well past garage-band status and were playing dates all over Texas and other parts of the US, but had not yet scored any hits. But I became an instant fan. In fact, while I was being introduced to the audience to take the stage for my speech, I was still in line buying their CD and having them autograph the photo of them I’d just bought from them - they handled their own back-of-the-room sales in those days.

Fast forward to April 14, 2000 and to USA Today, Life section:

DIXIE CHICKS EYE-OPENING ACTS
How do you make sure concert goers arrive before your show if you're the Dixie Chicks? First, give away front-row ticket upgrades during the half-hour before the concert starts. Second, book Willie Nelson as your opening act.
Nelson, Ricky Skaggs and singer/song-writer Patty
Griffin each will open dates on the Grammy-winning
country trio’s 70-date headlining tour which opens
June 1. "We joke that we really shouldn’t have
opening acts that are better than us," says Natalie
Maines, the trio’s lead singer.

Yep, I know the feeling, ya’ll. In ‘92 they were a quartet, not a trio, but it was obvious they were going places. So was I. But I’m still playing convention centers and Holiday Inns, not stadiums and sports arenas. My voice comes through people’s car speakers from my audio tapes, not from radio stations and MTV.

Lesson: "The first shall be last and the last shall be first." I can live with that, quite easily, while wishing them the best. But all of our careers grow at different speeds. Dropping behind your opening act does not mean you are losing ground.