Country Music Singer. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, his father was in the United States Air Force and was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base at the time of his birth. The family moved often when he was a child, due to his father's Air Force career. He learned to ride horses while visiting his grandparents on their Michigan farm, and age 13 participated in his first rodeo, riding in Denison, Texas. He soon was winning junior rodeo competitions, and continued to do so after his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming. He twice won the Wyoming State Rodeo Championship bareback riding title during high school, and earned a rodeo scholarship to Casper College in Casper. During his junior year, he won the Intercollegiate National bareback riding Championship. In 1970, he became a professional rodeo cowboy, and competed on the national rodeo circuit. To help pay his expenses while traveling the country, he began composing songs describing his lifestyle. Within two years, he had written enough songs to make up an album, and soon established a recording company, American Cowboy Songs, with his father. After recording his songs in a friend's basement, he began selling his albums out of the back of his truck at rodeo events. His years of hard work paid off when he won the 1976 world bareback riding championship at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, an achievement that brought him more credibility with music audiences. Chris LeDoux continued competing for the next four years, then retired in 1980 to nurse injuries and to spend more time with his growing family. Little known outside the rodeo circuit, he had released 22 albums, which were mostly cassettes produced by his parents that he sold at concerts and rodeos. His life and career changed in 1989 when future country music superstar Garth Brooks paid tribute to him in the song "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)", which was the first single off of Brooks' debut album. In 1992 he and Brooks teamed up for the Top 10 country music hit, "Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy." He would record and tour successfully in the 1990s, and had two released be certified gold and one certified platinum. He also eventually signed with Brooks' record label, Capitol, after releasing albums independently. In August 2000, Chris LeDoux was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, which required him to receive a liver transplant. Garth Brooks volunteered to donate part of his liver, but it was found to be incompatible. An alternative donor was located, and he received a transplant on October 7, 2000. After his recovery he released two additional albums, including 2003's "Horsepower." He also celebrated career sales of more than 5 million albums. In November 2004, Chris LeDoux was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma and underwent radiation treatment for it until his death on March 9, 2005 of complications from the ongoing treatment as well as the disease at a Casper, Wyoming hospital.

Parents are Alfred H. Ledoux and Bonnie Ledoux