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NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Call it a comeback, a crossover moment, or both. Twenty years ago, The Chicks<\/a><\/span> released their blockbuster 2006 album \u201cTaking the Long Way\u201d \u2014 their first full-length after the country music industry turned their backs on them \u2014 and one of the biggest of their career. This fall, the Texas trio of Emily Strayer, Martie Maguire and Natalie Maines will take it on the road, hitting intimate theaters across the U.S. <\/p>\n \u201cThis album in particular is what I think fans would say is the most recognized time in our career,\u201d says Maines. <\/p>\n And so, they expect the shows \u2014 which will feature them performing \u201cTaking the Long Way\u201d in full as well as additional songs \u2014 will also have them reminiscing about the album and the very unusual time that led up to it, on stage.<\/p>\n The moment that changed everything was back in 2003, when then-President George W. Bush<\/a><\/span> was preparing to invade Iraq. The Chicks were playing a show in London when Maines announced<\/a><\/span> that they were ashamed that the president was from Texas. The backlash was swift, and the stuff of industry lore. They were booed on awards shows, radio stations pulled their music and fans destroyed<\/a><\/span> their CDs. There was an apology, and then in 2006, a rescinding of the apology \u2014 with the best revenge served in the form of a multiplatinum selling single, \u201cNot Ready to Make Nice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely inspiring for songwriting,\u201d said Maines of that period. \u201cIt felt like life was happening to us, like we weren\u2019t steering the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThose were hard times for us,\u201d adds Maguire. \u201cIt\u2019s all the stages of grief \u2026 I think we were kind of in that misunderstood, angry, but also really upset and needing an outlet (stage.)\u201d<\/p>\n And so, they wrote the triumphant \u201cTaking the Long Way,\u201d produced by Rick Rubin,<\/a><\/span> after \u201clicking our wounds,\u201d as Strayer puts it. <\/p>\n \u201cNot Ready to Make Nice\u201d came out of that. \u201cIt was like, \u2018This is solely selfish. This is our lives,\u2019\u201d Maines says of the song. And they were shocked when it connected \u2014 but now, they recognize that \u201cpeople have their own \u2018Not Ready to Make Nice\u2019 story to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n