Trivia / Riders in the Sky

• Acting for Two: Fred LaBour plays both Too Slim and Sidemeat, the Lethal Chef cook at the Riders' ranch.
• Cameo Prop: Although his days of interacting with the Riders may be over, obsevant die-hard Riders fans will reconize Too Jaws occaninally sitting on-stage in the Riders' live shows. Too Jaws was the first original character the Riders created in the early 80s, and has in some way appeared in every Riders project outside the albums (like Tumbleweed Theater, and Riders Radio Theater).
• Fan Community Nicknames: Fans of the Riders have been dubbed "Saddle Pals".
• Inspiration for the Work: Too Slim was inspired to write Ride With Me Gringo when he saw a poster of Pancho Villa in a Salt Lake City restaurant.
• The Pete Best: Before recording their first album in 1979, the Riders already had two members leave: "Windy Bill" Collins and "Tumbleweed Tommy" Goldsmith.
• Saved from Development Hell: The Riders have had two albums that were fully (for the most part) recorded but not released until years later:
  • Horse Opera was partially recorded in 1979 but wasn't completed and released until 1990.
  • According to their biographical book from 2003, the Riders never thought their fully completed tribute album to Davy Crockett (recorded in the late 90s) would be released to the public. Jump to 2004 and the album is released to tie-in with the 50th anniversary of Disney's Davy Crockett miniseries.
• You Might Remember Me from...: Before Fred LaBour was the bass-playing cowboy Too Slim, he was already recognized as one of the men who popularized the rumor that Paul McCartney had died. His biggest contribution was creating the story that Paul had died in a car crash sometime before the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and had been replaced with a man named William Campbell, who looked and sounded like the real Paul. The whole thing was Trolling by LaBour, who was looking to spice up a review of Abbey Road his college newspaper had assigned him to write.

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