Chris LeDoux’s Song “This Cowboy’s Hat” Gets Music Video 33 Years Later
on Jul 11, 2024
Just a few weeks after the 13th annual Chris LeDoux Days, legendary rodeo star and country singer Chris LeDoux released a music video for one of his best-known songs.
The 13th Annual Chris LeDoux Days took place on June 14th at Harold Jarrard Park in Kaycee, Wyoming. The event celebrated LeDoux’s life as a rodeo star, country star, and human being.
Chris LeDoux was a hall of fame rodeo champion, where he competed in the bareback riding event. During his professional rodeo career, he began writing music and started his own recording company, American Cowboy Songs. After he won the bareback world championship at the National Finals Rodeo, he had a little more street credit when it came to the cowboy songs he sang.
He retired from his rodeo career in 1980 and became a full-fledged country music star, thanks to Garth Brooks mentioning him in his song “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old).” Later, Brooks would join LeDoux for a duet to the song “Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy,” and they were nominated for a Grammy!
Sadly, LeDoux passed away in March of 2005 after battling cancer. His legacy has been kept alive thanks to a statue of him standing in Kaycee, Wyoming, his music, his family, friends, and fans.
Ned LeDoux, one of Chris’s sons, has followed in his dad’s footsteps.
Ned started his music career by playing drums in his dad’s road band, but eventually started releasing his own solo material in 2015, with his debut EP Forever a Cowboy coming out the following year. He also occasionally covers his dad’s songs, including “This Cowboy’s Hat.”
“This Cowboy’s Hat” was released in 1991 off Chris’s album Western Underground.
Written by Jake Brooks, the song tells a story of a cowboy being confronted by people who don’t understand his lifestyle, or why he even wears a cowboy hat. Chris explained in the song that every single part of his hat had a meaning, from the feather to the pin to the rattlesnake hat band, and more.
The official music video for “This Cowboy’s Hat” was filmed on February 1, 1997 at a live performance. 27 years after that, his family put an official music video together, which visually tells the story of the now-iconic song. Ned appears in the video. The video finished off with several clips of Chris performing live.
Watch it below.
