Dixie Chicks founder killed in head-on car collision in Texas
A founding member of the Dixie Chicks has been killed in a head-on car collision in Texas.
Laura Lynch, 65, who once served as the band’s lead vocalist, died in a car crash in El Paso, Texas on Friday.
The musician was declared dead at the scene after another car travelling in the opposite direction pulled across a two-lane road to overtake, and collided with her vehicle head-on.
Ms Lynch was driving a Ford F-150 truck on Highway 62 between El Paso and Dell City, when her car was struck by Dodge Ram, which caught fire, police said. She was not wearing a seatbelt.
The driver of the second vehicle was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The Texas Department of Public Safety has launched an investigation.
Ms Lynch was among the founding members of the Dixie Chicks, which formed in 1989 in Dallas, Texas.
She performed as the bluegrass band’s bassist until 1992, when she became lead vocalist after the departure of Robin Lynn Macy.
She was the Dixie Chicks’ lead singer on their third album, ‘Shouldn’t a Told You That’, before leaving the band in 1995 before it gained widespread commercial success.
The band went on to have six number one hits and won thirteen Grammy awards.
Its current trio changed their name to ‘The Chicks’ in 2020, following suggestions that the word “Dixie” had connections to slavery.
The term is a slang name for the southern states of the US, and the band’s members said the George Floyd racial justice protests had “definitely lit a fire in us to be on the right side of history”.
The band performed “The Star Spangled Banner” at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, shortly after releasing ‘Gaslighter’, their first studio album in 14 years.
