Founding Member of Dixie Chicks Killed In Head-On Collision Near El Paso, Texas

Musician Laura Lynch, founding member of the band formerly known as The Dixie Chicks. was killed in a head-on collision in Texas, TMZ was first to report on Saturday.

Lynch, 65, was killed Friday in the crash after a vehicle attempting to pass another in the oncoming traffic lane near El Paso, Texas crashed into her vehicle, according to reports. Lynch was was pronounced dead at the scene.

The country music star was a founder of The Dixie Chicks, now called The Chicks, along with former member Robin Lynn Macy and current band members and sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire. Lynch was replaced as lead singer by Natalie Maines in 1995.

The band put out a statement on Saturday on Instagram and other social media channels, describing their bandmate as a “bright light” with “infectious energy and humor.”

“Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones at this sad time,” they wrote, and included a video of the band with Lynch.

Rolling Stone adds:

Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie and Emily Erwin (now Maguire and Strayer), co-founded the Dixie Chicks in the late-Eighties, with Lynch serving as upright bassist and co-lead vocalist. That quartet released two albums together — 1990’s Thank Heavens for Dale Evans and 1992’s Little Ol’ Cowgirl — before Macy departed the band, leaving them a trio.

As a three-piece, the Dixie Chicks with Lynch recorded one more album, 1993’s Shouldn’t a Told You That. That LP featured the work of steel guitarist Lloyd Maines, who introduced the Erwin sisters to his daughter Natalie, who ultimately replaced Lynch in the trio. Five years later, the then-Dixie Chicks would release their breakout 1998 album Wide Open Spaces.

RIP
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