Chris Ledoux Died Today in Casper Wyoming

Radio | 09 March 2005

[sean327]

Chris Ledoux Died Today in Casper Wyoming, Breaking, just heard on the radio.

[landerwy]

Good bye to another Wyomingite!

[FreeManWhoCan]

What a shame. I just started to get into him around a year ago after seing the video for "Stampede!".

[wildehunt]

Last go-round..

Ride easy cowboy..

[Rodney King]

When I think of my ideal life, it it all just one big Chris Ledoux song, living an indepedent life and breathing in the fresh air in Wyoming.

[OrangeDaisy]

Courtesy CMT.com

Chris LeDoux was born Oct. 2, 1948, in Biloxi, Miss., and raised in Austin, Texas. His father was an Air Force pilot who was posted to various parts of the United States. His grandfather, who had served in the U.S. cavalry and fought against Pancho Villa, encouraged LeDoux to ride horses on his Wyoming farm. LeDoux attended high school in Cheyenne, Wyo., and while still at school, he twice won the state's bareback title. In 1967, after graduating, he won a rodeo scholarship and received a national title in his third year. In 1976, he became the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's (PRCA) world champion in bareback riding.

LeDoux has been playing guitar and harmonica and writing songs since his teens, and he used his musical ability as a means of paying his way from one rodeo to another. Since 1971, he has been recording songs about "real cowboys," and his albums combine his own compositions about rodeo life with old and new cowboy songs. He describes his music as "a combination of western soul, sagebrush blues, cowboy folk and rodeo rock 'n' roll."

Charlie Daniels, Johnny Gimble and Janie Frickie are among the musicians who have appeared on his records, and Garth Brooks famously paid tribute to him in "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)." He and Brooks also teamed for the Top 10 hit, "Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy," in 1992.

In October 2000, after being ill for some time, he underwent a liver transplant. In 2003, he released the album Horsepower and celebrated career sales of more than 5 million albums.

LeDoux, 56, passed away March 9, 2005, from complications of liver cancer.

[It Matters]

He was a bareback rider. World Champion in late 70s

[RikaStrom]

This is horrible. I will have to take one of my cd's home with me, so I can listen to him in the car.

[ShadowDancer]

Very good song.

[ShadowDancer]

You're a Rand fan? Get out of here.

[Rightly Biased]

"A worn out tape of Chris Ledoux lonely women and bad booze seem to be the only friends I have left at all"

"I'm much too young to feel this damn old"

Thanks Chris


Gods Speed.

RB<><

[SeaDragon]

I know. It sucks big time.

[stainlessbanner]

"You'll ride a black tornado 'cross the western sky
rope an ol blue norter and milk it till it's dry
bulldog the Mississippi, pin it's ears down flat
long before you take this cowboys hat"

I'll always think of Chris riding across those great big Western Skies.

[exnavychick]

Oh, no! I'm going to have to tell Mr. Ex when he gets home tonight...he's going to be so shocked.

RIP, Chris. God Bless.

[petitfour]

MS ping

I didn't know he was born in Mississippi.

[Centurion2000]

Godspeed Chris.

[processing please hold]

My hubby and I have listened to him for years. It is very sad.

My prayers for him and his family.

[MtnScout]

From Chris LeDoux.com

REMINDERS OF HIS MORTALITY
As we said in the beginning, Chris LeDoux is a champion because he's also courageous, something he displays often when his body tries to reject the liver inside him from another human being.

"They have me on some stuff that keeps me from rejecting. But, every once in a while I kind of over do it, and it kind of knocks me on my butt for a week or two, you know, and I recover and go to it again. It's kind of a roller coaster ride, but it beats the alternative," LeDoux says matter-of-factly.

What those episodes of being knocked on his butt really mean is that he sometimes moves very close to death once again. "Well, I don't know (how long this liver will last), we're hopin' this will work until the time comes that I'm done. And, I really don't want to go through that whole deal again," he says frankly.

But instead of being fearful when his liver shows signs of failing, Chris is comforted when he actually feels the pull from "the other side."

"There's times, sometimes when I'm not feeling good, I get more emotional and there's almost like I can link up to the other side. It's really hard to explain," he notes.

"Yeah, you know the other side of death. It's kind of odd how you can feel a little closer to the people that went on ahead of you. It's kind of a spiritual experience. I just find myself thinking about them and just kind of imagining where they are, what they're doing. It's kind of neat, actually, to look at life that way, to realize there is another part when we're done here. I don't know what it's going to be, but you know there's a lot of good folks over there," says Chris with a truly calm voice.

"Then when I start feeling good again, I'm just my regular old self, just enjoying every moment."

[ArmyBratproud]

This is sad news. I knew he had been sick with the liver issue...but I though the transplant had him all fixed up.

I like his music a lot. Saw him play once here in Texas.

[nicmarlo]

Prayers for his family; I was lucky to see him perform at Country Jam in Colorado many years ago.

[StoneColdGOP]

Wow... Sad. I didn't know he was ill.

RIP.