Billy Ray Cyrus | Biography, Songs, & Facts (2024)

Billy Ray Cyrus (born August 25, 1961, Bellefonte, Kentucky, U.S.) is an American country singer and actor best known for his 1992 song “Achy Breaky Heart,” a smash hit that crossed over to the pop charts and inspired a line dancing craze. He also acted in several television series, including Hannah Montana (2006–11), a family-friendly show that launched the career of his daughter, the actress and singer Miley Cyrus.

Cyrus grew up in Flatwoods, Kentucky, in a family of musicians. His maternal grandfather played the fiddle, and his mother played the piano. His father, a steelworker and Kentucky state legislator, played the guitar and sang in a gospel quartet. Cyrus was a talented baseball player in high school and later attended Georgetown College in Kentucky on an athletic scholarship. While in college, he started playing the guitar and formed a country-rock band called Sly Dog with his brother. They had some success playing roadhouses, and Cyrus quit college to pursue music full-time.

After Sly Dog broke up in 1984, Cyrus tried his luck in Los Angeles, supporting himself as a car salesman. He eventually returned home to Kentucky, but he continued to perform music gigs throughout the South. In 1991 Mercury Records signed him to a record deal after a talent scout saw him open for country star Reba McEntire at an arena in Louisville, Kentucky.

His first album, Some Gave All, was released in 1992 and shot to number one on the country music and pop charts. The album ultimately sold nine million copies in the United States alone. Its lead single, “Achy Breaky Heart,” also went to number one on the country charts and number four on the pop charts. It features a catchy lyric and a simple two-chord structure that lends itself to country and western line dancing. It became a favourite track in bars and clubs, where line dancing was sweeping the country. Its music video, which showcased Cyrus’s handsome looks, trademark mullet hairstyle, and hip-swiveling dance moves, also fueled the song’s popularity and helped make Cyrus a country superstar.

Another single from the album, “Could’ve Been Me,” reached number two on the country charts. Cyrus cowrote the album’s title track, “Some Gave All,” a patriotic song dedicated to the service of U.S. military veterans. “Achy Breaky Heart” earned the most accolades, however, winning single of the year at the Country Music Association Awards and favourite country single at the American Music Awards. It was also nominated for record of the year and best male country vocal performance at the Grammy Awards, and Cyrus was nominated for best new artist.

Cyrus’s seemingly overnight success and his hit song’s predominance sparked a backlash by country music purists who objected to the song’s eager reception in pop music circles and the aggressive marketing behind it. Detractors of the song included singer-songwriter Travis Tritt, although some musicians, such as Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, expressed support of Cyrus’s crossover appeal.

Between 1993 and 1998 Cyrus released four more albums. The most critically acclaimed of these was Trail of Tears (1996), which offered a more personal, rootsy sound. But sales of his albums dwindled with each release, and his record label dropped him following his fifth album, Shot Full of Love (1998). Also during the 1990s, he met Tish Finley; they were married in 1993. They had three children together: Miley, Braison, and Noah, and he adopted Brandi and Trace, Tish Cyrus’s children from a previous relationship. Cyrus also has a son, Christopher, from a previous relationship.

In the late 1990s Cyrus began acting in small roles in television and film. In 2001 he landed the lead role in Doc, a television series about a small-town doctor who relocates to New York City. The series ran until 2004. His next television role was Robby Ray Stewart on the Disney show Hannah Montana. Cyrus played the father of the titular character, a teenage girl with a secret double life as a pop star, played by his real-life daughter Miley Cyrus. The show ran until 2011 and also spawned a movie in 2009.

Cyrus released more albums, including a Christian music album, The Other Side (2003). In 2007 he was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, where he lasted eight weeks. He had roles in the Jackie Chan film The Spy Next Door (2010) and the television movie Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014). He cofounded a record label, Blue Cadillac Music, in 2012; its first release was his album Change My Mind that same year. In 2013 he published his autobiography, Hillbilly Heart. He starred in and produced Still the King (2016–17), a television show about a washed-up country star who becomes an Elvis Presley impersonator.

In 2019 Cyrus was enlisted by rapper Lil Nas X to perform on a remix of “Old Town Road,” a song whose original version (also by Lil Nas X) had debuted on Billboard’s /hip-hop chart and also its country chart but then was removed from the latter chart for being insufficiently country-sounding. The remix went to number one on the Billboard 100, where it stayed for a record-setting 19 weeks. The song’s awards included favourite rap/hip-hop song at the American Music Awards, best music video and best pop duo/group performance at the Grammys, song of the year at the MTV Video Music Awards, and single of the year and best collaboration, duo, or group at the BET (Black Entertainment Television) Hip Hop Awards.

In 2022 Cyrus collaborated with rapper Snoop Dogg and the Avila Brothers on the song “A Hard Working Man” and acted in the television movie Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas. The same year he and his wife divorced, citing irreconcilable differences. Later that year he announced his engagement to Australian singer Firerose.