A true cowboy, Chris LeDoux wasn’t driven by the prospect of fame or money when he began pursuing rodeo professionally, or when he starting writing and recording his own music. In pursuit of the World Championship in Bareback Bronc riding, which he won in 1976, LeDoux spun his stories of life on the circuit into fresh western anthems. Recorded in a true mom-and-pop shop, LeDoux sold his recordings out of his pickup truck at competitions and quickly found a devoted audience and high praise for his bonfire ballads and lyrical candor.
In 1989, one of LeDoux’s more famous fans stepped forward with an endorsement that validated the rodeo champ as a true country music artist and brought much more widespread and mainstream attention to his music. Garth Brooks, in his early hit “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),†referred to playing “a worn out tape of Chris LeDoux.†That same year, LeDoux signed his own recording contract with Capitol Records Nashville.
With sales of his 36 albums now totaling more than six million units in the U.S., one platinum and two gold album certifications from the RIAA, a Grammy nomination and the Academy of Country Music Pioneer Award, LeDoux’s career flew high during his life and continues to resonate after his March 2005 death from a rare form of cancer at the age of 56. Fans of LeDoux’s early recordings have found some of his best tracks on the platinum-certified collection, 20 Originals: The Early Years, released in 2004, and Capitol Nashville/EMI continues to honor LeDoux’s enduring musical legacy with its new catalog campaign to restore twelve of his best original albums.
