On this day 11 years ago, Wyoming lost a legend - Chris LeDoux.  As we remember Chris today on the air, I wanted to share my memory of the first time I got the chance to meet Chris LeDoux.

In 1994, some friends and I had driven from Sacramento to Vallejo, California to see Chris LeDoux perform alongside Western Underground.  They took to the stage in a packed bar and lit up the crowd with hit song after hit song, until it came time in his set for him to sing his hit - This Cowboy's Hat.

I was standing up front just left of the stage and Chris walked over to the edge near where I stood and complimented me on wearing my cowboy hat (not a popular thing in California at the time) and commented on how I was one of the only people that he saw in the crowd wearing one proudly.

After the show, Chris came out to his merchandise table to sign a few autographs and sell some CD's and T-Shirts.  Of course I bought a CD and got his autograph and then I offered to buy him a beer when he wrapped up, to which he accepted.

About 30 minutes later, Chris joined my friends and I for a beer at the bar and told us stories of life on the road and how he owed much of his recent radio success to Garth Brooks.

Several years later, I would get the chance to meet Chris again and even got the chance to bring LeDoux and Western Underground on stage at a concert in Idaho, a memory and experience I will always cherish.  Especially because later on that year, Chris would be diagnosed with liver cancer and it would take him from us in only matter of months.  Chris passed away on March 9th, 2011 at the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, WY.

Chris was taken from us way to early, but his music and his legacy lives on!

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