The Chicks Call Out a Cheater in ‘Sleep at Night’ [Watch]
The Chicks call out a cheater in "Sleep at Night," one of the new tracks on their Gaslighter album. To celebrate the project — their first in 14 years — the trio of Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer released a music video for the song on Friday (July 17).
The "Sleep at Night" video finds the Chicks wandering through a desert town, their dramatic moves subtly telling the story in the song's lyrics. They're often shoulder to shoulder or huddled around each other, symbolically offering support and sisterhood.
Written by Maguire, Maines and Strayer with Teddy Geiger and Justin Tranter, "Sleep at Night" is a straightforward look at the hurt and anger that accompanies devastating news. The song's protagonist is grappling with the discovery of her husband's infidelity: "My husband's girlfriend's husband just called me up / How messed up is that?" she shares.
"It’s so insane that I have to laugh," Maines continues. She's clearly reeling, but her concern quickly turns to two other people who will be affected by the news: "But then I think about our two boys trying to become men / There’s nothing funny about that."
"How do you sleep at night? / How do you tell those lies?" she asks in the chorus. "Lookin’ me in the eye / Livin’ a double life."
Throughout Gaslighter, there are hints that the affair being described wasn't a particularly well-hidden one — an idea furthered in the second verse of "Sleep at Night." "Remember you brought her to our show at the Hollywood Bowl? / She said, 'I love you I’m such a fan,'" Maines recounts. "I joked that you can love me as long as you don’t love my man ..."
Beyond explaining that her divorce inspired her to write new music, neither Maines nor any of her bandmates have explicitly confirmed that Gaslighter's multiple references to an extramarital tryst are about her ex-husband, actor Adrian Pasdar, whom she recently divorced. All three of the Chicks have been through at least one divorce, and they all co-wrote this particular song.
However, Maines and Pasdar have two sons together, just as the protagonist of "Sleep at Night" does. Maines' ex-husband is also the one who tried to get a court to hold up the release of the Chicks' new music because it might violate a confidentiality clause in his and Maines' prenuptial agreement.
Gaslighter, the Chicks' first new album since 2006's Taking the Long Way and their first since dropping "Dixie" from their name, is out now.
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