Chris LeDoux Died:(

[Belle~]

I doubt if any of you knew him. He was a cowboy. He had a great voice. His songs were down to earth. I am sad that he is gone.

"The Ride"

I was six years old, my brother was ten
One July day came running in,
seen a ferris wheel at the edge of town
So, of course, we headed on down

Well it took us an hour to walk that far
Carrying our fortune in a Mason jar
It was all pretty sad, a cheap county fair
With a few old rides but there was ponies there

Well, the ponies stunk and the air was still
In that dusty circle behind the ferris wheel
This old guy smelling of smoke and rum
Swung me up and sat me down on one

Well I'd never rode a horse but I'd seen it done
Cowboy movies made it look like fun
This old man whispered a few soft words
It was the best advice I've ever heard

Chorus:
He said "Sit tall in the saddle, Hold your head up high
Keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky
And live like you ain't afraid to die
And don't be scared, just enjoy your ride"

I went up a kid with shaking hands
And I came down a full grown man
It was like he'd cast some Voodoo spell
Things were different for me now, I could tell

'Cos whenever troubles come wandering in
His rhyme would pop in my head again
And somehow I rode through the needles and nails
Brambles and thorns that life entails



Well I know some day farther down the road
I'll come to the edge of the great unknown
There'll stand a black horse riderless
And I wonder if I'm ready for this

So I'll saddle him up and he'll switch his tail
And I'll tip my hat and bid fairwell
And lift my song into the air
That I learned at that dusty fair

"Sit tall in the saddle, Hold your head up high
Keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky
And live like you ain't afraid to die
And don't be scared, just enjoy your ride"
Now don't be scared, just enjoy your ride

[Maze]

Chris LeDoux
<click

He's too handsome to die...what happened to him Belle?

www.chrisledoux.com

[Belle~]

Hi Tom. He died of cancer. He had a liver transplant last Nov. 2004. Then developed bile duct cancer & died March 9, 2005.

The wierd thing for me is I didn't know much about him.....but I heard his song "The Ride" on the radio and got it for a friend of mine who was recently diagnosed with cancer. The song gave her so much hope and strength to "keep on keepin on".

Now I don't have the heart to tell her he died.

Since then, I've gotten a few of his songs from Wnmx. Man, I'm so bummed out he is dead. I had no idea.

[theknife]

not a country fan, but i do know who Chris Ledoux was....

i spent more years than i care to think about out in cowboy country on the Idaho/Washington border and had some friends who were bullriders (an fricking insane sport - makes surfing big waves look like...well, a day at the beach). they turned me onto him with the song "Hooked On An 8 Second Ride". i understand that, unlike most Nashville wannabes, he was a real working cowboy, bullrider, bronco buster etc, with a ranch and all.

interesting the way he broke into the big time: in the late 1980s Garth Brooks mentioned LeDoux in the song "Much Too Young" with this line :

The competition's getting younger
Tougher broncs, you know I can't recall
The worn out tape of Chris LeDoux, lonely women and bad booze
Seem to be the only friends I've left at all

that was all it took....the Garth fans discovered LeDoux and the rest is history.

RIP Chris

[Gutrguy]

I lived in Texas for 4 years, rode bulls for a while...so a lot of the 'cowboys' i was around were really into LeDoux. I heard a lot of his music, and altho it wasnt really my thing he did make good music, shame he is gone.