Chris LeDoux came into the 1976 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City as the No. 14 qualifier and left as the world champion bareback rider.
According to Sports Illustrated, he was ranked No. 3 going into Round 10, placed second in that round and took home the Gold Buckle.
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By then, he had already cut six albums of his own rodeo songs and was selling them out of his truck at rodeos and by mail.
The year 2026 marks 50 years since that title. Chris LeDoux, born October 2, 1948, in Biloxi, Mississippi, the son of an Air Force pilot, grew up in Wyoming and died of cancer in Casper on March 9, 2005, at 56. In between, the tapes from his truck carried his name all the way to Nashville.
Chris LeDoux Was Winning Rodeo Titles and Writing Songs Long Before 1976
At 16, LeDoux became the 1964 Little Britches World Champion Bareback Rider, and he added the 1967 Wyoming State High School Bareback Championship and the 1969 National Intercollegiate bareback riding title. The ProRodeo Hall of Fame notes that he competed in all three roughstock events and rodeoed full time, averaging more than 80 rodeos a year.
The music grew up right beside the riding. He learned harmonica at 12, taught himself guitar at 14 and wrote his first song, “Bareback Jack,” in high school in Cheyenne. With his family’s help, he started an independent label, American Cowboy Songs, and recorded his first album of rodeo songs.
He sold those records himself, at rodeos and by mail order, and released more than 20 albums on his own. By 1989, the family record company had earned over $4 million in sales, which is a lot of money for music sold out of a truck and a mailbox.
He started the Haywire Ranch in 1979 and retired from rodeo by 1984 to focus on music. Five years later, he found out how far those tapes had already traveled.
Garth Brooks Put Chris LeDoux’s Worn-Out Tapes in His First Hit
In 1989, Garth Brooks released his debut hit, “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),” and one line in it named a worn-out tape of Chris LeDoux. That line caught the attention of Capitol Records Nashville.
LeDoux looked back on that moment with The Associated Press in 2001, saying Brooks came along and mentioned the worn-out tapes in his song.
He signed with Capitol, released his major-label debut, Western Underground, in 1991, and went on to release 18 albums there and sell over 6 million worldwide. The title track of Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy, his 1992 duet with Brooks, became his only top 10 single and earned both men Grammy and ACM nominations.
He also recorded with Bon Jovi, Toby Keith and Charlie Daniels. Brooks once told American Cowboy exactly where his own act came from.
“I stole my whole act from Chris,” Brooks said.
Garth Brooks Offered Chris LeDoux Part of His Own Liver
In 2000, LeDoux was diagnosed with liver disease, and his only hope was a transplant. Brooks quietly offered part of his own liver, and he once explained that loyalty in words that leave no room for doubt.
“Chris needs something, and I owe everything I have to Chris LeDoux. I’m your man,” Brooks said.
For You
LeDoux described their friendship in that same 2001 interview.
“To me, Garth, he’s kind of like my guardian angel. It’s like every time I need some help, he’s there,” he said.
His final album, Horsepower, came out in 2003. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum lists his 2004 induction into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame, his 2005 induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, a posthumous ACM Pioneer Award that same year and the museum’s own Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2006.
When the museum held a tribute exhibition in 2015, Brooks loaned it two bronze sculptures LeDoux had made, Wild Horse Fit and Eyeball to Eyeball.
Chris LeDoux Raised Five Children in Kaycee, and His Son Ned Was His Drummer
LeDoux married Peggy in 1972, and they settled in Kaycee, Wyoming, where they raised five children, Clay, Ned, Will, Cindi and Beau.
Ned LeDoux told The Boot he thinks he was 5 years old when he got his first drum set. He grew up to play drums for his father, and he said singing never even crossed his mind while his dad was around, because all he wanted was to be the best drummer he could be for him.
Ned has since stepped out front as a singer, and he has said he does not think of it as being in his father’s shadow.
In Kaycee, a bronze statue called Good Ride Cowboy stands in his memory, according to Billy Bob’s Texas, and Wyoming holds Chris LeDoux Days every year.
Shop Garth Brooks
- Double LiveVinylHis 1998 live albumSee it on Amazon
- LegacyVinyl collectionSee it on Amazon
- The Anthology Part I: The First Five YearsBook · 2017His own story of his first five years in musicSee it on Amazon
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Chris LeDoux won the gold buckle, sold his songs out of a truck and heard Garth Brooks sing about his tapes, and he still named one thing above all of it.
“What I want to be known for, on top of everything else, is that I was a good husband and family man,” he once said.
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