Country music is full of cityslickers dressed in cowboy hat and boots, but
if you're looking for a real cowboy look no further than Chris LeDoux.
LeDoux is a cowboy through and through -- and quite appropriately he's
playing to a sold out crowd at Cowboys on Nov. 3.
Before he started plucking tunes out of his guitar and inspiring the likes
of Garth Brooks, LeDoux was a rodeo cowboy. He even rode the bucking barebacks
here at the Calgary Stampede.
"I rodeoed for years in Calgary. It was my #1 or #2 rodeo ever. I won the
short go-round there one year. And I got hung-up there once -- they drug me
around the arena, steppin' on me and jerked me around," LeDoux told Sun
Country.
Being on the rodeo circuit has not only provided LeDoux with some good song
writing material, he feels it has made him a more stable, down-to-earth person.
"It made me appreciate the finer things in life. When you're on the rodeo,
you stop along the road to get some sleep. You wake up the flies are buzzing
all over you and the sun is beating on down through the windshield -- that's
kinda your alarm clock. Maybe ya take a bath in a reservoir. That was the magic
of the whole thing -- a gut-level style of living," recalls LeDoux.
There has long been a rivalry between rodeo cowboys and ranching cowboys.
Since between gigs LeDoux runs a large cattle ranch in Wyoming, where do his
loyalties fall?
If you want a hint, you'll have to check his wardrobe.
"It seems like all the ranchers wear Levis and the rodeo guys wear
Wranglers. I wear Wranglers -- I couldn't get Levis to fit like a darn."
He also admits to being a little more open-minded than some traditional
ranchers.
"Some ranchers may think a horse team and wagon is the only way to run a
ranch but shoot, I like to have a pickup!
"There are certain boundries for me too. I don't want to try and get the
cows in with a motorcycle. You gotta have a horse."
His ranch however, does hold a higher rank in his heart than most things.
"Right now music has to take priority because it's paying for the ranch but
the ranch is really my sanctuary -- it's my piece of heaven on earth. My family
and the ranch is the real first and foremost thing. But I do love music, don't
get me wrong."
The King of Country, Garth Brooks, also loves LeDoux's music. In fact, some
new country fans were first introduced to LeDoux through Brooks' mention of him
in Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old): A worn out tape of Chris LeDoux,
lonely women and bad booze.
"Garth and I are kindred spirits," says LeDoux.
In fact, Brooks makes a cameo in LeDoux's new video Five Dollar Fine.
In the video, Brooks in one of many in a bar where a big brawl is happening.
"At the end, Garth backs out the door and says 'I thought I had friends in
low places'," chuckles LeDoux.
When asked what accomplishment he's most proud of, LeDoux's cowboy
sensibilities come through loud and clear.
"My #1 is finding a girl I'm head over heels for and the fact she loved me
back. We've been married for almost 25 years," he says of his wife Peggy.
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