Zac's Blog o' Death

Copenhagen/It makes me feel so good/Copenhagen/The way I know it should/I put a lil' chew in my mouth/Go spittin' and a slobberin' all around the house/That Copenhagen it makes me feel so good

Goddamn. I've had this blog up for how many months now? Since October? Less than one post a month, and now three out of four are about celebrity deaths. Why is this the only thing that drives me to blog? What death am I addressing now? Why, country star Chris LeDoux, of course... http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,16100,00.html

Why the hell does über-hip Zac care about a has-been country star? Well, unlike the ODB and the Good Doctor, I had met Chris LeDoux. You see, back when Zac wasn't quite so wise, he was suckered into working as a stage-hand for a small concert promotion company. This company, which shall remain nameless, handles county fairs and other small-scale concerts up and down the Pacific Coast. This means lots of mainstream country artists and has-been classic rockers. I don't know why it is, but a country artist can do a county fair in the height of their career, but for any other genre of music, a county fair is a sign that your career is about 10 years past hopeless...

But anyway, yeah, I worked as a stage hand at quite a few of these concerts. Backbreaking work that is. And interesting co-workers too. Aside from my fellow college-student/townie friends, the only other workers were a couple of middle-aged guys who were about one step away from being homeless. I've had some very odd life experiences as a result of this work too. Formative, life-changing expereinces. But that's another story...

But anyway, yeah, Chris LeDoux. So I worked Chris LeDoux concerts, what, at least three times? Maybe four? He was actually a pretty cool dude. Whereas we, the lowly stagehands never got to see Toby Keith, and weren't allowed backstage (where we were supposed to be) for Travis Tritt, and were shooed away by Dwight Yoakam's people once he realized we were there, LeDoux just came up on stage and hung out with us while we set up. He looked like your average, grizzled, middle-aged redneck. He just stood on the edge of the stage, a dip in his lip, bullshitting with the roadies as we set up the concealing scaffolding around the mechanical bul he would ride towards the end of his set. Just the fact that he treated us like we were people, and acted like he too was just a man, did so much to elevate my respect for him.

God rest his soul.