Billy Ray Cyrus Biography

Billy Ray Cyrus is the son of Ron Cyrus, a politician, and Ruth Ann Adkins. Growing up, Billy Ray was strongly influenced by his grandfather, who was a Pentecostal preacher; coming from such a staunchly Christian background, it is hardly surprising that Billy Ray should become a devout Christian too.

Despite the fact that baseball, rather than music, was his first love when he was a high school student, Billy Ray claims that “intuition and an inner voice” prompted him to go out and buy a guitar when he was 20. The ambition to become a singer began to grow within him and Billy Ray and his brother formed a group called Sly Dog, giving themselves a ten-month deadline in which to find a venue where they could play their music in front of an audience. Just one week prior to the cut-off date, Billy Ray’s group secured a booking as a house band for a club in Ironton, Ohio, where they remained as the resident band for over two years.

Tragedy struck in 1984, when a fire destroyed not only the club itself - but also Billy Ray’s equipment. Undaunted, he decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of securing a recording contract. As fate would have it, he was then noticed by Grand Ol’ Opry star Del Reeves, who introduced Billy Ray to the bosses at Mercury Records. Producer Harold Shedd at Mercury was so impressed with Billy Ray that he offered him a record deal - it was the summer of 1990.

Billy Ray’s first album, Some Gave All, was released in 1992 and was an instant success. With his honed body, rugged good looks and on-stage charisma, he was a sensation with the record-buying public. His debut album sold over 9 million copies; in particular, the single “Achy Breaky Heart” spent five weeks at the top of the country charts. The album itself went on to remain at the top of the pop charts for a staggering 17 weeks.

Having started his record career in a whirlwind of success, Billy Ray naturally had high hopes for his second album, It Won’t Be The Last, which he released in the summer of 1993. The album did quite well at first, entering the pop charts at number three, before it eventually fell short of the sales that might have been hoped for, given the runaway success of Billy’s debut album. A similar fate awaited Billy Ray’s next album, Storm In The Heartland, which was released in autumn 1994. The album managed to achieve gold, but didn’t receive the air time that might have been hoped for on country radio.

Undeterred, Billy Ray continued to record more albums - but by the time his next offering, Trail of Tears appeared in 1996, his following had dwindled considerably: the songs Billy Ray had produced were harder-edged, and more introspective, and the public didn’t like them as much as their predecessors. The album only spent four weeks in the charts and didn’t even reach gold, let alone platinum sales. Billy Ray followed up with an album called Shot Full of Love in 1998 and Southern Rain in 2000.

Other performers might have been daunted and discouraged by such a disheartening fall in sales, but Billy Ray simply decided to reinvent himself and diversify. Beginning in 1999, he starred in the indie movie, Radical Jack, and then went on to take a small part in David Lynch’s hit movie, Mulholland Drive. Cyrus played the part of a pool cleaner who has been having an affair with the wife of Adam Kesher, played by Justin Theroux. As a devout Christian, however, Billy Ray wasn’t happy playing roles such as those of an adulterer, since it conflicted with his strong Christian beliefs; he was reported to have been “upset by the lack of morals in Hollywood” and turned his attention to TV acting instead.

Moving to TV acting was a good move for Billy Ray, for far greater success lay in store for him when he began to appear on TV. In 2001, he landed the lead role in the comedy drama series Doc, which went on to become the ION TV network’s highest-rated show. Billy Ray felt far more comfortable playing in a family-oriented show, and decided to focus on TV acting rather than movies. His television credits include The Nanny, Diagnosis Murder, Love Boat, The Next Wave, and TNN’s 18 Wheels of Justice. In 2004, he made a guest star appearance in the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. The following year, he acted and danced live on stage in Toronto, when he played the role of Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun.

Interestingly, Billy Ray Cyrus has also appeared in several television documentaries that relate the story of his own rise to fame and stardom. These include two ABC documentaries, respectively entitled Dreams Come True and A Year On The Road. TNN have also produced two special programme about Billy Ray; these are called I Give My Heart To You and The Life and Times of Billy Ray Cyrus.

Billy Ray also achieved a new level of stardom towards the end of 2005, when he began co-starring in the Disney Channel original TV series, Hannah Montana, alongside his young daughter Miley. After Doc completed its run, Billy Ray had actually decided that he wanted to take a break from acting but then the producers of Hannah Montana announced they were looking for someone to play the part of the father on the show. Billy Ray initially refused to audition for the part of playing his real life daughter’s stage dad but his wife and daughter kept on pushing him, insisting that he was the perfect person to play the role. Hannah Montana premiered to one of the largest audiences ever recorded on the Disney Channel and became an overnight success.

In 2007, Billy Ray diversified his career still further when he appeared with several other celebrities to take part in the U.S. version of Dancing With The Stars. Sadly, he and his partner Karina Smirnoff, were eliminated in Week Eight. Also in 2007, Billy Ray filmed the music video for his latest hit single, Ready, Set, Don’t Go, which he dedicated to his daughter Miley; the video naturally included clips from Hannah Montana.

Billy Ray Cyrus has been married twice, and has several children. Between 1986 and 1991, he was married to Cindy Smith, with whom he co-wrote the hit song, “Where’m I Gonna Live? “ which was featured on the album he brought out in 1992, namely Some Gave All. In December 1992, he married his childhood sweetheart, Leticia “Tish” Finley, to whom he is still married. Together, Billy Ray and Tish have three children; daughters Miley Rae, who is also called Destiny/Hope, Noah Lindsay and their son, Brandon Chance. Billy Ray also has two adopted stepchildren: Trace, and Brandi, as well as a son from a previous relationship, who’s called Christopher Cody.

In 2006, Billy Ray’s recording career experienced a second flowering. He released a new album called Wanna Be Your Joe, which succeeded in going gold - the first of his albums in eight years to do so - despite the fact that it failed to produce a hit single. Billy Ray Cyrus released his tenth studio album, Home At Last in 2007, on the Disney label. The album debuted at number 20 on the American Billboard charts, and succeeded in re-establishing Billy Ray as a major personality in American country music. Billy Ray’s latest album, Love Songs, a retrospective collection of songs taken from his best-selling albums released on the Mercury label, was released early in 2008.

In addition to his musical achievements, Billy Ray also holds several awards for the work he has done for various charitable organisations. In 1999, he received the International Entertainment Buyer Association’s “Humanitarian Of The Year” Award for his philanthropic work. He has also been honoured by the Country Radio Broadcasters, and by the Kennedy Center Honors, which recognised and acknowledged his work with children. He also received the first ever Bob Hope Congressional Medal of Honour Society Entertainer’s Award for his dedication to helping others.