Chris LeDoux was an American country music singer-songwriter, bronze sculptor
and rodeo champion. During his career LeDoux recorded 36 albums which have
sold more than six million units in the United States as of January 2007. He was
awarded one gold album certification from the RIAA, and was nominated for a
Grammy Award and the Academy of Country Music Music Pioneer Award.
Biography = Early years =
LeDoux was born in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was of French descent on his father's
side. His father was in the US Air Force and was stationed at Keesler Air Force
Base at the time of his birth. The family moved often when he was a child,
due to his father's Air Force career. He learned to ride horses while visiting
his grandparents on their Michigan farm. At age 13, LeDoux participated in his
first rodeo, riding in Denison, Texas, and before long was winning junior rodeo
competitions. LeDoux continued to compete in rodeo
events and played football through his high school years, with rodeos keeping
most of his attention. When his family moved to Cheyenne, he attended Cheyenne
Central High School. After twice winning the Wyoming State Rodeo Championship
bareback riding title during high school, LeDoux earned a rodeo
scholarship to Casper College in Casper. During his junior year at Eastern New
Mexico University, LeDoux won the Intercollegiate National bareback riding
Championship . LeDoux married Peggy Rhoads on January
4, 1972, and they had five children: Clay, Ned, Will, Cindy and Beau.
= Rodeo success and music beginnings = In 1970, LeDoux became a professional
rodeo cowboy, competing on the national rodeo circuit. To help pay his expenses
while traveling the country, he began composing songs describing his
lifestyle. Within two years, he had written enough songs to make up an
album, and soon established a recording company, American Cowboy Songs, with his
father. After recording his songs in a friend's basement, LeDoux began selling
his albums out of the back of his truck at rodeo events.
His years of hard work bore fruit in 1976, when LeDoux won the world bareback
riding championship at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. Winning
the championship gave LeDoux more credibility with music audiences, as he
now had proof that the cowboy songs he wrote were authentic. LeDoux continued
competing for the next four years. He retired in 1980 to nurse injuries and to
spend more time with his growing family. = Music career =
With his rodeo career ended, LeDoux and his family settled on a ranch in Kaycee,
Wyoming. LeDoux continued to write and record his songs, and began playing
concerts. His concerts were very popular, and often featured a mechanical
bull and fireworks. By 1982 he had sold over 250,000 copies of his albums, with
little or no marketing. By the end of the decade he had self-released 22
albums. Despite offers from various record
labels, LeDoux had refused to sign a recording contract, instead choosing to
retain his independence and total control over his work while enjoying his
regional following. In 1989, however, he shot to national prominence when he was
mentioned in the debut song of Garth Brooks' Top-10 country hit "Much Too
Young." Capitalizing on the sudden attention, LeDoux signed a contract with
Capitol Records subsidiary Liberty Records and released his first national
album, Western Underground, in 1991. His follow-up album, Whatcha Gonna Do with a
Cowboy, was certified gold and reached the top ten. The title track, a duet
with Brooks, became LeDoux's first and only Top Ten country single, reaching
No. 7 in 1992. In concert, he ended the song by saying, "Thanks, Garth!"
For the next decade, LeDoux continued to record for Liberty. He released six
additional records, one of which, 1998's One Road Man, made the country Top 40.
Towards the end of his career, LeDoux began recording material written by
other artists, which he attributed to the challenge of composing new lyrics.
With his 2000 release, Cowboy, he returned to his roots, re-recording many
of his earliest songwriting creations. = Illness and death =
In August 2000, LeDoux was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis,
which required him to receive a liver transplant. Garth Brooks volunteered to
donate part of his liver, but it was found to be incompatible. An alternative
donor was located, and LeDoux received a transplant on October 7, 2000. After his
recovery he released two additional albums. In November 2004, LeDoux was
diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma and underwent radiation treatment for it
until his death on March 9, 2005 of complications from the ongoing treatment
as well as the disease at a Casper, Wyoming hospital. He was survived by his
wife of 33 years, Peggy, and their children Clay, Ned, Will, Beau, and
Cindy, as well as his mother, Bonnie. Tributes
Shortly after his death, LeDoux was named as one of six former rodeo cowboys
to be inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs in 2005. He was
the first person to ever be inducted in two categories, for his bareback riding
and in the "notables" category for his contributions to the sport through
music. Shortly thereafter, the Academy of
Country Music awarded LeDoux their Pioneer Award during ceremonies in 2005.
LeDoux's good friend Garth Brooks accepted the award on behalf of LeDoux's
family. In late 2005, Brooks briefly emerged
from retirement to record "Good Ride Cowboy" as a tribute to LeDoux. Brooks
remarked: "I knew if I ever recorded any kind of
tribute to Chris, it would have to be up-tempo, happy ... a song like him ...
not some slow, mournful song. He wasn't like that. Chris was exactly as our
heroes are supposed to be. He was a man's man. A good friend."
Garth Brooks performed the song on "The 39th Annual CMA Awards" on November 15,
2005 live from Times Square in New York City. Later that evening, LeDoux was
honored with the CMA chairman's Award of Merit, presented by Kix Brooks of Brooks
& Dunn, to LeDoux's family. Friends have also collaborated to
produce an annual rodeo, art show, and concert in Casper to honor LeDoux's
memory. The art show features sculpture and sketches that LeDoux completed for
friends; none of his works were ever exhibited before his death.
To mark the second anniversary of LeDoux's death, in April 2007 Capitol
Records released a six-CD boxed set featuring remastered versions of 12 of
the albums he recorded between 1974 and 1993.
Award-winning artist and sculptor D. Michael Thomas is creating a
one-and-a-half times lifesize sculpture of Chris LeDoux during his 1976 World
Championship ride on Stormy Weather. The statue, called "Good Ride Cowboy," will
be displayed at the Chris LeDoux Memorial Park in his hometown of Kaycee,
Wyoming. On October 26, 2006 Chris LeDoux was
inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage
Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Son Beau LeDoux, himself a rodeo
competitor, on July 24, 2007, spread his father's ashes over Frontier Park Arena
during the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo:
"It was something my family and I thought would be right to do because
this was such a special rodeo to him. ... This has always been a special rodeo
in my family. My dad rode here and came close to winning here a couple of
times." Additionally the city in which LeDoux
attended college; Casper, Wyoming, celebrates his life and legacy each
November with the Chris LeDoux Memorial Rodeo. A weekend event which includes an
art show featuring a number of LeDoux's works, a PRCA rodeo and a country music
concert. In 2010, Robert Royston created "One
Ride", a musical dance production. One Ride is a powerful music and dance
production that tells the story of the Rodeo Cowboy. Inspired by and told
through the music of Chris LeDoux, the show explores the passionate, yet
humbling and often painful paths a cowboy follows in his quest to become a
champion. One Ride will debut at Queen Theater in the Park on October 29 and
continue through November 6. The goal is to pay tribute to Chris LeDoux by
launching a national tour that will follow the rodeo circuit.
In 2011 country music artist Brantley Gilbert paid tribute to LeDoux in
Gilbert's single "Country Must Be Countrywide," with the line "From his
Wranglers to his boots – he reminded me of Chris LeDoux. With that Copenhagen
smile, Country must be countrywide." Rodeo career milestones
Discography References
Further reading Seemann, Charlie.. "Chris LeDoux". In
The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford
University Press. p. 293. Brown, David G.. "Gold Buckle Dreams:
The Rodeo Life of Chris Ledoux". Wolverine Gallery
External links The Official Chris LeDoux Website
A popular Chris LeDoux Fansite Amazon.com: Gold Buckle Dreams: The
Rodeo Life Story of Chris Ledoux The Musical Dance Production link
"Singer, rodeo champ Chris LeDoux dies" at the Wayback Machine: Obituary by
Peter Cooper, The Tennessean, March 10, 2005
"Chris LeDoux". Find a Grave. Retrieved March 7, 2015.