Coffee cups, police patches, footballs and even a pair of underwear are displayed around Dan Patrick’s famous man cave, home of his morning sports talk show watched by more than a million fans.
Now that collection includes something uniquely Wyoming — a colorful cow skull painted by Wyoming singer-songwriter Ned LeDoux, who is well-known for carrying on the Western musical legacy of his father, Chris LeDoux, as well as writing his own, original music.
Skulls are something LeDoux, who grew up in Kaycee, Wyoming, typically gives to family or friends as a colorful, Western thank-you.
When LeDoux heard that "The Dan Patrick Show" will be ending soon, he felt it was time to send the show he has loved the last 15 or so years a unique gift.
“I don’t know Dan Patrick,” LeDoux told Cowboy State Daily. "But for as many years as I’ve been watching the show, in a way, I kind of do feel like I know him a little bit.
"So, it was just a gift of, just saying thanks for all the entertainment over the years.”
Last week, Patrick showed off LeDoux’s painted cow skull during a fan mail segment, which is always the last two or three minutes of the televised show.
‘Dad, There’s That Skull!'
The moment caused a little bit of a stir in the LeDoux household.
“We were just sitting there, and I was kind of getting ready to get up and go for another cup of coffee,” LeDoux said. “And they came back from commercial and Dan walks out of his back room, and he’s holding the skull I sent him.”
That had his almost 4-year-old son shouting, “There’s that skull! Dad, there’s that skull!”
Then LeDoux rewound the clip so his son could see the whole thing again.
“He was way more excited than I was,” LeDoux said with a chuckle. “Because he was down in the basement kind of watching me paint that thing.”
The kid even helped pick some of the vibrant colors on the skull. As his dad was working on the worm-shaped designs on the flat part of the skull, he asked his son, “Red or blue?"
The boy suggested yellow.
Yellow it was.
“I wanted it to be just full of color,” LeDoux said. “And I think I painted it like a couple of other times, and I was like, ‘No, that’s too dull.’ So, I just wanted to add some flash to it, because that just seems like (Patrick’s) personality.
"But it’s not just for him,” he added. "It’s for the Dannettes and the whole crew. So yeah, just a lot of color and a little bit of flash in there.”
Show Goes Well With Morning Coffee
LeDoux started watching "The Dan Patrick Show" more than 15 years ago in Kaycee, Wyoming, just after his first child was born.
He was flipping through the television channels, trying to find something to watch when he landed on "The Dan Patrick Show.” What caught his eye was a guitar in the corner, which seemed like an odd juxtaposition for a sports talk show.
“They weren’t really talking about sports,” LeDoux said. “They were talking about music and who they thought was the best guitar player ever.
"And then plus all the stuff that’s hanging on the walls around them, with the jerseys and the football helmets and the bobbleheads and all their little knickknacks. So I was like, ‘Well, this is pretty cool,’ and it became like a morning routine for me.”
After so many years of watching the show, LeDoux knows all of the items pretty well.
“One day I thought, ‘Well, he doesn’t have a skull hanging up anywhere. Maybe he’d enjoy something like that,’” LeDoux said. “So, I got the idea probably three or four years ago, and then I just got busy and didn’t really have time to do anything.”
After hearing that the show would end in 2028, LeDoux was reminded of his fleeting thought to paint a cow skull to gift the show.
“We had some time off earlier this winter,” LeDoux said. “So, I just went ahead and picked out this old cow skull I had laying around, painted it up, and boxed it up and sent it off to Dan.”
On the show, LeDoux was pleasantly surprised to hear the Danettes not only mention his dad, Chris LeDoux, a legendary singer-songwriter who both performed as a singer and a rodeo competitor at Cheyenne Frontier Days, but pronounce his name correctly.
“They all just started kind of talking about dad and myself, and it’s like, ‘Oh Chris LeDoux is a legend,’” his son said. “And then one of the other guys said, ‘Yeah, Garth Brooks put Chris’ name in a song. So just the knowledge that they had about me and my dad, that was in itself, just a surprise.”
Ranch Roots Behind LeDoux’s Skull Art
LeDoux has actually been painting skulls longer than he’s been writing songs. The hobby grew out of day-to-day life on a ranch in Wyoming.
Every ranch has a bone pile, LeDoux said. A place up in the hills where a lost calf or cow is placed.
One day, riding in that area, LeDoux happened to notice a particularly striking cow’s skull lying in the sun, bleached out and weathered.
“It just looked kind of interesting to me, so I took it back to the garage and just kind of cleaned it up and started adding some paint to it,” LeDoux said. “And those first few skulls that I painted back in those days, they weren’t very good. But as the years went by, I progressed, and it just grew into kind of (my own) style.”
LeDoux does sell the skulls from time to time. But most are gifts, as he considers this a relaxing hobby rather than a profession.
“I just really enjoy the creativity of it,” he said.
Friends, family, and neighbors will often drop their own skull finds off in his yard or shed. Others are relics from the family’s ranching days, still stacked up in outbuildings at home.
Some of these skulls have been gifted to other country music artists like Steve Wariner, Mark Miller of Sawyer Brown, and his longtime producer Mac McAnally.
His mother has several of them hanging in her house.
LeDoux also has some decorating his own home.
“I think at one point there was a skull in every single room,” he said with a laugh. He took a few down, deciding that was probably “a little too much.”
LeDoux’s father was an acclaimed rodeo and country music star, but another of Chris Ledoux’s many talents was creating detailed Western-themed bronze pieces.
He also gave some of his works to fellow country singers, including Garth Brooks and Charlie Daniels.
The Finishing Touch
LeDoux’s work on the skulls is part craft and part ritual.
First, he carefully cleans the skull, ensuring there are no loose teeth or anything else that might eventually wiggle loose and wind up dropping to someone’s living room floor.
“They’re always full of bugs and things like that,” LeDoux said. “And there’s some cartilage in the eye socket, which you can just knock that out. It’s really thin stuff, and that’s where a lot of bugs like to nest.”
Once anything that might attract bugs is gone, any loose teeth get a shot of glue to hold them in place. Then LeDoux will carefully sand the forehead, smoothing down the area that serves as the main canvas.
One area that he never touches, however, are the horns.
“They kind of tell a story about the animal,” he said. “It might have a bunch of scratches and scrapes and dents and things missing from it. So, I just leave the horns alone.”
LeDoux uses acrylic paint for the skulls. The colors are brilliant and they mix well. They also don’t take a long time to dry.
Once the design is set, LeDoux will spray the skull with some clear coat to protect the paint. Leather, feathers, and other items finish up the piece, after which the gift is ready for carefully boxing to send on its way.
In Patrick’s case, LeDoux also sent a copy of his latest music CD “Safe Haven,” along with a handwritten note that thanked Patrick for “all the entertaining years” and told him how much he loved pairing the show with his morning coffee.
There’s no telling where the skull will end up once "The Dan Patrick Show" is done.
For LeDoux, it’s just nice to know that a piece of Wyoming color has found a place among America’s favorite morning show memories.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
