POWELL - Tired, hurt and discouraged, professional rodeo cowboy Junior Michael Ray was thinking about calling it quits.

Until a 6-year-old girl lifted the weight of the world by asking him for his autograph.

That is the real-life story line of a video shoot, auditioned and filmed in Cody recently. And a Powell girl, Jade Nicole Skelton, plays the 6-year-old who influenced Junior Ray to carry on a career as cowboy, singer and songwriter. Jade is the daughter of David and Marla Skelton of Powell.

The part of the 6-year-old girl is central.

Ray, who has lived and rodeoed in Cody, admits he was nearly at the end of the line as he sat one day in the San Diego, Calif., airport almost two years ago.

"I was ready to give up rodeo," he said. "I thought to myself, 'I'm done. I've had it. That's enough.' Then this little girl came up to me, carrying my CD, and said, 'Mr. Ray, I really like your music,' and asked for my autograph. It just got to me, and I decided, 'Maybe I can do this a little bit more.'"

Out of that chance encounter, Ray was inspired to write the song, "I Paid the Price, but at What Cost." It is featured on his latest CD, "I Do It for Me." The video, which will accompany release of the CD, re-creates the moment in the airport.

"Junior wanted to do the video in Cody," said his manager, Danae Deines of Cody. "This is the area he calls home. We wanted to feature local people."

Marla Skelton was sitting in her shop at the Cowlic and Hooves salon in Powell April 21 when she heard a radio call to audition for parts in the music video. There were parts for a 6-year-old girl, a family with a baby, a "grandparently" couple, a teenager and others.

Marla inquired and learned enough that she and her 6-year-old, Jade, headed for Cody and three hours of auditions April 23. They had plenty of company - literally hundreds, including many 6-year-old girls.

"The hardest part was auditioning those little girls," Ray said. "We talked to all of them."

Jade was a show stopper, Ray said.

"She had this absolute Hollywood-beautiful, childlike look, but she was so honest," he said. "She was so well behaved. I turned around and looked at everybody in the room, and not a word was said. It was like, 'This is it.'"

Fittingly, the video was shot over two days at Cody's Yellowstone Regional Airport. Jade's turn before the camera didn't come until late in the afternoon April 27.

"That was the highlight," Ray said. "She knew her lines. It was perfect. At one time between scenes, she walked up and tugged on my pants and said, 'Your music is my favorite.' It choked me up."

To a re-energized Junior Ray, his rodeo and his music are one and the same.

"It's all the same thing," he said. "I'm going to keep on rodeoing as long as I can. I hope the music thing picks up. One day I'd like to live in Cody or Powell or Ralston. It sure beats L.A."

Ray is a fifth-generation professional rodeo cowboy and has ridden often at the Cody Nite Rodeo. He credits another Wyomingite - rodeo cowboy and country singer Chris LeDoux - as the biggest influence in his life. The name of Ray's first CD is "Rodeo Heroes and Friends."