Billy Ray Cyrus
Billy Ray Cyrus (/saɪrəs/ SY-rəs; born August 25, 1961)[2][3] is an American country singer, songwriter and actor.[4][5] Having released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, he is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart and became the first single ever to achieve triple platinum status in Australia. It was also the best-selling single in the same country in 1992.[6][7] Due to the song's music video, the line dance rose in popularity.[8]
Billy Ray Cyrus
August 25, 1961
- Singer
- songwriter
- actor
1989–present
-
Cindy Smith(m. 1986; div. 1991)
-
Firerose(m. 2023)
6, including Brandi, Trace, Miley and Noah Cyrus
Ron Cyrus (father)
- Vocals
- guitar
A multi-platinum selling artist, Cyrus has scored a total of eight top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. His most successful album to date is his debut Some Gave All, which has been certified 9× multi-platinum in the United States and is the longest time spent by a debut artist and by a country artist at number one on the Billboard 200 (17 consecutive weeks) and most consecutive chart-topping weeks in the SoundScan era.[9][10][11]
Some Gave All was also the first debut album to enter at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.[12] The album has also sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling debut album of all time for a solo male artist. Some Gave All was also the best-selling album of 1992 in the US with 4,832,000 copies.[13][14] During his career he has released 36 charted singles, of which 17 charted in the top 40. In 2019, Cyrus earned his first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 as a featured artist on a remix of Lil Nas X's song "Old Town Road", which spent a record-breaking nineteen consecutive weeks at the top spot (eighteen of them credited to Cyrus). It also spent a record-breaking twenty consecutive weeks (nineteen of them credited to Cyrus) at the top spot on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Billboard Hot Rap Songs.[15][16] The R&B/Hip-hop record has been broken in May 2023 by SZA's "Kill Bill".[17]
Thanks to "Old Town Road", Cyrus won his first two Grammy Awards, in the categories Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video.[18]
From 2001 to 2004, Cyrus starred in the television show Doc. The show was about a country doctor who moved from Montana to New York City. From 2006 to 2011, he co-starred in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana with his daughter Miley Cyrus in the role of the titular character's fictional father Robby Ray Stewart, a clear reference to his real name. From 2016 to 2017, he starred as Vernon Brownmule on the CMT sitcom Still the King.
Early life
Billy Ray Cyrus[2] was born on August 25, 1961, in Flatwoods, Kentucky, to Ron Cyrus, a steelworker who became a politician,[19] and his wife, the former Ruth Ann Casto.[20][21] Cyrus started singing at the age of four. His parents divorced in 1966. His grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher. Growing up he was surrounded by bluegrass and gospel music as his family are musicians. His right-handed father played guitar, however left-handed Cyrus tried to play his father's guitar, but could not. He attended Georgetown College on a baseball scholarship before changing to music. He dropped out of Georgetown during his junior year, realized he wanted to become a musician after attending a Neil Diamond concert, and set a 10-month goal to start a career.[19] In the 1980s, he played in a band called Sly Dog, before signing a record contract with Mercury Nashville Records.[22] Sly Dog was named after a one-eyed dog that Cyrus owned.[19]
Music career
The Mercury Records years
While trying to get a recording contract in Los Angeles, Cyrus suffered many hardships including living in his neighbor's car. However, in 1990, he was signed to PolyGram/Mercury. In the same year he opened for Reba McEntire.[19] Cyrus began to record and write music for his debut album, released in 1992.
Some Gave All was released in 1992. The album became an instant chart and sales success. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums, Billboard 200, Canadian Country Albums chart, Canadian Albums Chart, and on the charts of several other countries. The album featured four consecutive top 40 singles on the Hot Country Songs chart from 1992 to 1993, including an album cut, the title track. The most successful single released was "Achy Breaky Heart". It reached No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and was also a hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached No. 4. Uniquely for a country music song it also became an international success, reaching number 1 in Australia and number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. Thanks to the video of this hit, there was the explosion of the line dance into the mainstream, becoming a global craze.[23] Additionally, the singles "Could've Been Me" reached No. 2, "Wher'm I Gonna Live?" reached No. 23, and "She's Not Cryin' Anymore" reached No. 6. Some Gave All was certified 9× multi-platinum in the United States in 1996, and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
Acting career
Cyrus starred in the 1999 independent film Radical Jack. He also had a small part in David Lynch's 2001 film Mulholland Drive as Gene, a pool cleaner who had been having an affair with the wife of Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux). In 2001, Cyrus played the lead role on the PAX (now ION Television) comedy-drama Doc, which became the network's highest-rated show. In 2005, Cyrus expanded his acting career in a stage production of Annie Get Your Gun in Toronto, appearing in the role of Frank Butler.[40]
Cyrus' television credits include The Nanny, Diagnosis Murder, Love Boat, The Next Wave, and TNN's 18 Wheels Of Justice. In 2004, he guest-starred as a limo driver in the episode "The Power of Love" of the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. Cyrus has also been the subject of many television specials that detail his rise to fame and his career. These include two ABC documentaries, Billy Ray Cyrus: Dreams Come True and Billy Ray Cyrus: A Year on the Road, a VH1 exclusive, as well as the TNN specials I Give My Heart To You, and The Life and Times of Billy Ray Cyrus. In late 2005, Cyrus and his daughter Miley Cyrus began co-starring in the Disney Channel original television series, Hannah Montana, which premiered on March 24, 2006.
In March 2007, Cyrus joined several other celebrities to take part in the fourth season of the US version of Dancing with the Stars.[41] He and his partner Karina Smirnoff, were eliminated in the eighth week (May 8, 2007) after having also placed in the "bottom two" the week before.[42]
Cyrus also starred in Jackie Chan's movie The Spy Next Door. It was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico and released in January 2010.
Cyrus sits on the advisory board of a conservative group called the Parents Television Council.[40]
In 2010, it was announced that he and his son Trace Cyrus would take part in a new Syfy reality series called UFO: Unbelievably Freakin' Obvious.[43][44][45][46]
Cyrus made his Broadway debut as Billy Flynn in Chicago. He was in the show for a temporary engagement from November 5 to December 23, 2012.[47]
Personal life
Relationships and family
Cyrus was married to Cindy Smith from 1986 until they divorced in 1991. Cyrus and Smith co-wrote the songs "Wher'm I Gonna Live?" and "Some Gave All", both of which were featured on Cyrus' 1992 debut album Some Gave All.[19]
In 1992, Cyrus became the father of two children with different women: a son, Christopher Cody Cyrus, born to waitress Kristin Luckey,[48] and a daughter, Miley Ray Cyrus, born to Leticia "Tish" Finley. Cyrus pledged to Luckey to support her and their child; she raised their son in South Carolina.[49][50][51]
On December 28, 1993, while Finley was pregnant with their second child, the couple were secretly married against the advice of Cyrus' record company.[3][49][50] They have three children together, two daughters: Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; in 1992) and Noah Lindsey Cyrus (born 2000); and a son, Braison Chance Cyrus (born 1994). He also adopted the two children Finley brought from her previous relationship: daughter Brandi Glenn Cyrus (born 1987), and son Trace Dempsey Cyrus (born Neil Timothy Helson; in 1989).[52] In June 2021, Cyrus became a grandfather for the first time when his son Braison and daughter-in-law Stella (McBride) Cyrus welcomed their first child.[53][54]
The family lived on a 500-acre (2.0 km2) farm in Thompson's Station, Tennessee, near Nashville. They moved to Los Angeles for the filming of the Disney Channel original series Hannah Montana in which daughter Miley starred. Brandi also had cameos in the series, in the episodes "Yet Another Side of Me" and "Been Here All Along".[55]
On October 26, 2010, Cyrus filed for divorce in Tennessee, citing irreconcilable differences but in March 2011, Cyrus said he had dropped the divorce proceedings.[56]
On June 13, 2013, Tish filed for divorce after 19 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences with Cyrus.[57] In July 2013 the couple was reported to be in therapy and dropped the divorce.[58] In 2017, the second divorce case was officially dismissed by the court since the couple failed to appear.[59] In April 2022, Tish filed for divorce a second time, with the divorce papers revealing that they had been separated for more than two years.[60]
In August 2022, Cyrus became engaged to Australian singer Firerose.[61][62] The two met over a decade prior on the set of Hannah Montana and in 2021 released "New Day", a collaboration featuring Firerose's vocals and Cyrus on guitar.[63][64][62] They were married on October 10, 2023.[65]
Political views
Although Cyrus's song "We the People" was used as a campaign song by Republican George W. Bush in his 2000 presidential campaign, Cyrus was reported as saying that he had been a lifelong Democrat.[66]
