Trending:
- Ned LeDoux’s new album, Safe Haven, is out now
- It pays tribute to both his late father, Chris, and toddler daughter, Haven
- “I believe that everybody in this world has a place where they need to go when things get a little too heavy,” he tells PEOPLE. “And for me, music has always been that”
It’s been 20 years since the country music industry lost Chris LeDoux — and Ned LeDoux lost his beloved father.
“I think he’d still be going at it if he was still here,” country singer Ned LeDoux, 47, tells PEOPLE of the realization that his dad would have turned 77 years old this year. “I’m not sure if he’d still be riding the bucking machine, but you never know. I wouldn’t put it past him.”
LeDoux laughs, but the sadness over his father’s death is still there in the depths of his voice whenever he speaks of the late country star and rodeo champ. And it’s that voice that is now featured on LeDoux’s new album Safe Haven.
“That’s a great thing about recorded music,” LeDoux says about posthumously collaborating with his father on Safe Haven, his first album in over three years. “It lives forever.”
Not only does LeDoux keep his legendary father’s memory alive over the course of Safe Haven, but even more so on the single “One Hand in the Riggin’,” which features a vocal track that was laid down by Chris LeDoux approximately two years before his death in 2005. “It was the last time he stepped foot in the studio and the last song he ever sang in the studio,” explains LeDoux. “As far as I know, this is the last thing that my dad ever recorded.”
As the story goes, the vocal track that Chris LeDoux put down that day for singer/songwriter Brenn Hill’s single that was never used. “It pretty much sat on a shelf,” says LeDoux. “I got to be friends with Brenn years ago, and he would say that the timing back then just wasn’t right, and that he believed that the Lord had a plan for everything. And he told me, ‘I think what His plan is for this to be a duet with you and your dad.’ So, him giving it to me was a blessing.”
And with the help of producer Mac McAnally, LeDoux finally heard the final version of “One Hand in the Riggin’” last year. “He plugged in dad’s vocal and mixed it all up,” says LeDoux of McAnally, who actually served as the producer on Chris LeDoux’s final three albums. “It’s just so cool to hear my dad’s voice along with mine.”
And while his new album was a way to honor the life of his dad, LeDoux also used it as a way to honor the life of his late daughter Haven, who tragically died at age 2 as a result of a choking accident back in 2019.
“I had a list of 10 or 15 different ideas for album titles, but also on my wall, I’ve got a picture of me and my daughter and we’re sitting out on the front porch, and the words ‘Safe Haven’ just came to me,” says LeDoux. “So, the album is in dedication and memory for my daughter.”
So too is the instrumental he calls “Haven’s Lullaby.”
“It was probably a week or two after she passed,” LeDoux remembers. “One day, I got my guitar, because I was just wanting to play again. And all of a sudden, this melody came out and it was almost as if Haven was speaking to me as I was playing the guitar part.” He pauses. “I believe that everybody in this world has a place where they need to go when things get a little too heavy. And for me, music has always been that.”
And while LeDoux looks to continue to record music throughout the remainder of his own life, he doesn’t think he will have the chance to sing with his late father again.
“I don’t think there’s anything else in terms of his recordings,” he concludes. “My dad had a hell of a catalog of music, and I’m proud to carry on the torch and keep dad’s music and memory alive forever.”
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