Billy Ray Cyrus

• 1. Introduction

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  Billy Ray Cyrus, an American singer, songwriter and actor, held the top of the Billboard 200 for 17 consecutive weeks with his first album. No debut artist had ever stayed there longer, and no country artist had either. That is a strange place to begin a career, because everything afterward gets measured against it. Cyrus has released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, and the later ones rarely matched that opening. So how does a man who starts at the highest point keep working for decades? And what does he become once the first act is over? The answers begin in a small Kentucky town, long before any chart existed.

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• 2. Kentucky Beginnings

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  Flatwoods, Kentucky, is where William Ray Cyrus was born on the 25th of August 1961. His father, Ron Cyrus, worked as a steelworker and later became a politician. His mother was Ruth Ann, born Casto.

  Cyrus was singing by the age of four. Music ran through the family. His grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher, and the relatives who played filled his childhood with bluegrass and gospel. His parents divorced in 1966.

  A guitar produced one of his earliest frustrations. His father played right-handed, while young Cyrus was left-handed, and he could not make his father's instrument work in his hands.

  Baseball came before music. Georgetown College gave him a baseball scholarship, but he dropped out during his junior year. A Neil Diamond concert convinced him that he wanted to be a musician, and he gave himself a deadline of 10 months to start a career.

  The band he joined in the 1980s was called Sly Dog, a name borrowed from a one-eyed dog that he owned.

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• 3. Some Gave All

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  Living in a neighbor's car was one of the hardships Cyrus endured while chasing a recording contract in Los Angeles. His luck turned in 1990, when PolyGram and Mercury signed him. That same year he opened a show for Reba McEntire. He then began writing and recording the debut album that would arrive in 1992.

  Some Gave All hit the ground running. It entered at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, the Billboard 200, and both Canadian album charts, along with the charts of several other countries. No debut album had ever entered the Top Country Albums chart at number one before. Four singles from the record reached the top 40 of the Hot Country Songs chart in a row between 1992 and 1993, including the title track.

  The song "Achy Breaky Heart" carried the album further than country records usually travel. It reached number one on the Hot Country Songs chart and number 4 on the Hot 100. Abroad it hit number 1 in Australia and number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. In Australia it became the first single ever to reach triple platinum, and it was that country's best-selling single of 1992. The music video then did something stranger. It pushed line dancing into the mainstream and turned it into a global craze.

  The other singles also climbed. "Could've Been Me" reached number 2, "She's Not Cryin' Anymore" reached number 6, and "Wher'm I Gonna Live?" reached number 23. Cyrus wrote "Wher'm I Gonna Live?" and the title track with Cindy Smith, his wife from 1986 until their divorce in 1991.

  The sales were enormous. In the United States, Some Gave All was the best-selling album of 1992, at 4,832,000 copies. Worldwide it has sold more than 20 million, which makes it the best-selling debut album of all time for a solo male artist. It was certified 9× multi-platinum in 1996, the same year a very different record, Trail of Tears, reached the shelves.

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• 4. After the Peak

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  Mercury moved quickly in 1993, and the second album, It Won't Be the Last, debuted at number one on the country albums chart. It also reached number 3 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the end of the year. Four singles followed, and three reached the top 40. The lead single, "In the Heart of a Woman," went to number 3, while "Somebody New" reached number 9.

  Cyrus also joined Dolly Parton on her single "Romeo" that year. The record reached only number 27 on the country chart. Even so, its video was popular on CMT.

  The slide started with Storm in the Heartland in 1994. It reached only number 11 on the country albums chart, and just the title track made the singles top 40. "Deja Blue" stalled at number 66, and "One Last Thrill" never charted at all. It was still certified gold, and it was his last album for PolyGram, which closed its doors in 1995. Cyrus moved to Mercury Nashville. In 1994 he also gave the song "Pictures Don't Lie" to Red Hot + Country, an AIDS benefit album produced by the Red Hot Organization.

  Trail of Tears, in 1996, was the album critics liked best. The public barely noticed. It debuted at number 20 on the country chart, produced no top 40 singles, earned no certification and was gone from the charts after four weeks.

  Shot Full of Love in 1998 became his lowest-peaking album, debuting at number 32. After the singles faded, Cyrus left Mercury and signed with Monument Records in 1999. His first album there, Southern Rain, came out in 2000 and reached number 13 on the country chart. All five of its singles charted, and "You Won't Be Lonely Now" went highest, to number 17.

  In 2003 he turned to Christian music and released two albums that year, Time Flies and The Other Side. Time Flies peaked at number 56 on the country albums chart, and only its final single, "Back to Memphis," charted, at number 60. The Other Side did better, debuting at number 5 on the Top Christian Albums chart. Two of its singles charted, "Face of God" at number 54 and the title song at number 45.

  The Other Side was recorded in the gaps between filming days for a television series called Doc.

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• 5. On Screen

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  David Lynch gave Cyrus a small part in the 2001 film Mulholland Drive. He played Gene, a pool cleaner who has been having an affair with the wife of the character Adam Kesher, played by Justin Theroux. Two years earlier Cyrus had starred in an independent film called Radical Jack.

  In 2001, the PAX network cast him as the lead of Doc, a comedy-drama about a country doctor who leaves Montana for New York City. Cyrus played Dr. Clint Cassidy. The series ran for 88 episodes through 2004 and became the highest-rated show in the network's history. Guest spots came easily around it, including The Nanny, Diagnosis Murder, The Love Boat: The Next Wave and 18 Wheels of Justice. In 2004 he played a limo driver in the Degrassi: The Next Generation episode "The Power of Love."

  The stage came next. In 2005 he took the role of Frank Butler in a Toronto production of Annie Get Your Gun. He made his Broadway debut years later as Billy Flynn in Chicago, a temporary run from the 5th of November to the 23rd of December 2012.

  The Disney Channel series Hannah Montana premiered on the 24th of March 2006. Cyrus played Robby Ray Stewart, father to the title character, who was played by his real daughter Miley Cyrus. The show ran for 95 episodes through 2011, and it earned him a Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Parental Unit. The film version in 2009 earned him a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor, and he was nominated for the same award for The Spy Next Door in 2010. That Jackie Chan comedy was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

  Other screen work was lighter. He played Doctor Quint in Sharknado 2: The Second One in 2014 and hosted the series Nashville Star. Two ABC documentaries and a VH1 special also followed his rise to fame.

  From 2016 to 2017 he starred as Vernon Brownmule in the CMT sitcom Still the King, and he was also a producer on all 26 episodes.

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• 6. Second Act

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  Wanna Be Your Joe, released in 2006 on New Door/UMe Records, was Cyrus's first country album since Southern Rain. It reached number 24 on the country chart. It sold well at first, but country radio ignored both the title track and the follow-up, "I Want My Mullet Back." A video was made for "Stand," a duet with Miley.

  Baseball season gave him a bigger stage that year. He sang "The Star Spangled Banner" at Game 5 of the 2006 World Series in St. Louis, Missouri.

  In 2007 Cyrus entered the fourth season of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with Karina Smirnoff. He became a fan favorite and reached the semi-finals, finishing in fifth place. The attention changed his label's plans. Home at Last, on Walt Disney Records, was moved up by a month and came out in July 2007. It debuted at number 3 on the country chart, his first top 5 entry since 1993. It never earned a certification.

  The album's single "Ready, Set, Don't Go" reached number 33 as a solo song. In October 2007, Cyrus and Miley performed it as a duet on Dancing with the Stars. The duet peaked at number 4 in 2008, giving Billy Ray his first top 5 single since 1999 and giving Miley her first top 5 on any Billboard chart.

  The next album did not repeat the trick. Back to Tennessee, on Lyric Street Records, slipped through several release dates before arriving on the 7th of April 2009. It opened at number 13 with about 14,000 copies sold. A duet with Miley, "Butterfly Fly Away," reached number 56 on the Hot 100. On the 12th of November 2008, the pair presented the Song of the Year award at the 42nd Annual Country Music Association Awards. Lyric Street and Cyrus parted ways after that one album.

  In early 2009, Cyrus formed a supergroup called Brother Clyde with Phil Vassar, Jeffrey Steele and John Waite. By mid-2010 he described it as an alternative rock group with a new lineup, and its single "Lately" was on iTunes. Late that year, though, he suspended his activity in the band and announced a patriotic solo album, I'm American.

  It was released on the 28th of June 2011 after a delay. Its single "Nineteen" debuted at number 58 on the Hot Country Songs chart in October 2011. That was his first charted single since 2009. Change My Mind followed on the 23rd of October 2012.

  In April 2017, Cyrus told Rolling Stone Country that on his birthday he would be known as "the artist formerly known as Billy Ray." Fans disliked the idea. On Live with Kelly and Ryan he explained that Cyrus was simply the title of the new album, subtitled Set the Record Straight, and that his name would stay Billy Ray.

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• 7. Old Town Road

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  Billboard removed Lil Nas X's country-rap song "Old Town Road" from its Country chart in 2019, and that decision opened the door for Cyrus. He was invited to appear on a remix. The remix rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, unseating the original version of the song and giving Cyrus the first Hot 100 number one of his career.

  It stayed there for 19 consecutive weeks, 18 of them credited to Cyrus. That broke the record for the longest-running number one song in history, which belonged to Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men for "One Sweet Day." The song also spent 20 consecutive weeks on top of both the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, 19 of them credited to Cyrus. SZA's "Kill Bill" broke the R&B/Hip-Hop record in May 2023.

  In October 2019, the song earned a diamond certification from the RIAA for more than ten million total units in the United States. No song had reached diamond faster.

  The awards followed. "Old Town Road" won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video, which were Cyrus's first two Grammy Awards. Before it, his best chart results had come in country, where he had eight top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

  In 2026, Cyrus competed on season fourteen of The Masked Singer as "Owl" and was eliminated on "Twilight Night." That same year he appeared in the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special.

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• 8. Family and Public Life

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  In 1992, the year of his debut album, Cyrus became the father of two children with two different women. Kristin Luckey, a waitress, gave birth to a son, Christopher Cody Cyrus. Cyrus pledged to support them, and she raised their son in South Carolina. Leticia "Tish" Finley gave birth to a daughter, Miley Ray Cyrus.

  On the 28th of December 1993, while Finley was pregnant with their second child, the couple married in secret. Cyrus's record company had advised against it. Their children were Miley, who was born Destiny Hope Cyrus, Braison Chance in 1994, and Noah Lindsey in 2000. Cyrus also adopted two children Finley brought from an earlier relationship, Brandi Glenn, born in 1987, and Trace Dempsey, who was born Neil Timothy Helson in 1989.

  The family lived on a 500 acre farm in Thompson's Station, Tennessee, near Nashville. They moved to Los Angeles when Hannah Montana began filming, and Brandi had cameos in two episodes. In June 2021, Cyrus became a grandfather when his son Braison and daughter-in-law Stella had their first child.

  The marriage itself went through several legal ruptures. Cyrus filed for divorce in Tennessee on the 26th of October 2010 and said in March 2011 that he had dropped it. Tish filed on the 13th of June 2013, after 19 years of marriage, but the couple were reported to be in therapy a month later. The court dismissed that case in 2017 because they failed to appear. In April 2022, Tish filed again, and the papers showed they had been separated for more than two years.

  In August 2022, Cyrus became engaged to the Australian singer Firerose, whom he had met more than a decade earlier on the set of Hannah Montana. In 2021 they had released a collaboration, "New Day." They married on the 10th of October 2023. On the 22nd of May 2024, Cyrus filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct. He also asked for an annulment, claiming the marriage was obtained by fraud. The divorce was finalized on the 5th of August 2024. In April 2025, the actress and model Elizabeth Hurley said on social media that she and Cyrus were dating.

  Politics has been a part of his public life too. His song "We the People" was used as a campaign song by George W. Bush in 2000, although Cyrus was reported as saying he had been a lifelong Democrat. He attended a fundraiser for Al Gore that year. In August 2024, he posted a photo of himself with Donald Trump on Instagram and endorsed him. On the 20th of January 2025, he performed at the presidential inaugural ball. He also sits on the advisory board of the Parents Television Council, a conservative group.

  The governor of Kentucky has named him a Kentucky Colonel, an honor tied to the state where his story began.

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