- I'm here with Lisa Rinna.
And on the line now is also Rainn Wilson.
Give it up!
(audience clapping and cheering)
My next guest is a two-time Grammy winner,
whose single "Old Town Road"
shattered just about every record last year.
His new EP is called "The Singin' Hills Sessions: Mojave,"
it's out now.
Give it up for Billy Ray Cyrus, everybody!
(mellow country music)
Yes, I like that little lick.
What's up, man?
- I'm good, how you doing?
- I'm doing all right, I'm doing all right.
Well, when you were here in March,
before the world decided to just turn,
"Old Town Road" was 10 times platinum,
and now it's 13 times platinum.
Can you believe it hasn't slowed down?
People love that song.
- It's been crazy.
And, you're right,
referring back to the last time I saw you
was the last little bit
of normal that I recall.
Everything after that...
I left from your couch and went and did a show
with Neil Diamond and Sammy Hagar in Las Vegas.
And I caught a Southwest flight
the next morning after that back to Nashville.
And by the time I landed the whole world had changed.
So at this moment to be back with you
going full circle,
and we're all starting brand new again.
And you're right about "Old Town Road."
I think that a lot of people hear that song
and go back to 2019.
I know I do, I loved 2019.
- Really any year other than this one, but yeah.
- This year I'm looking forward to 2021.
- Amen, your mouth to God's ear.
Is it true you got your first iPhone this year?
Is that a real thing?
- Yeah.
It's a bit embarrassing to keep bringing it up.
But, I'd been living like Fred Flintstone
and realized that my mom was living like "The Jetsons."
And I go, "Man, I'm scared to death of change,
but I think I really need to step up to the plate."
And now that I have, it's opened up a whole new world.
I write all my songs now on my iPhone.
It's quicker, it's better.
You can put it in your pro tools.
It's like I can't believe,
but I'm scared to death of change.
And sometimes that's like that.
But change is the only thing
I think you can really count on in life.
And I should have embraced it earlier.
I've sent a lot of blurry pictures out there
over the last 20 years.
I got my first BlackBerry I think
while we were doing "Hannah Montana."
I think I remember taking a picture with Lisa.
How you doing, Lisa?
- I'm great, Billy, how are you doing?
It's great to see you.
- I'm doing great, you too.
We had fun on "Hannah Montana," didn't we?
- We sure did. - I love that.
- We sure did, I'll never forget it.
And you know how much I love Miley.
- Yeah, well, actually speaking of Miley,
this was one of my favorite things I've heard recently.
So she shared her experience with UFOs,
which I do believe life is out there,
but you've had a similar experience.
I didn't know that.
- Well, I don't talk about it all that often to be honest.
But, you know, that goes back
to when I was a little boy growing up in Kentucky,
there was this place back in the mountains.
There's these big old beach trees back there.
And beach trees are are good to carve on with a knife.
And way back in the 1930s,
a guy that lived back in the mountains
had had this experience
which he carved the pictures on a tree.
I found them when I was a little boy
and it was an old Model T Ford,
and a saucer, and this alien looking thing.
And I started researching.
And I go, "Wait, man.
There was like an alien invasion in Kentucky
in the late 1930s, who knew about that?"
Yeah, and so I kind of got,
I don't know, fascinated with it as a little boy.
And then a couple of times,
you know, throughout life, I've seen some crazy stuff.
Some of it I'm sure most of it's probably explainable.
But some of it I like...
Hey, I took that picture!
- [Kelly] He said, "Hey!" (laughs)
- I remember that one right there.
That's a beauty, I took that.
With my BlackBerry
- With my BlackBerry, iPhone (laughs).
So wait, Rainn and Lisa, do y'all believe,
do you believe, Lisa, in extraterrestrials?
- I do. - I do too.
I don't I think it's what we think it is.
- I know. - But I do believe
in like other life.
- I think that we can't be the only life.
- I think that's so egocentric to think.
- I think so too, right? - Yeah.
- I mean unless you don't believe in it,
and then I think that's fine, Rainn.
- No, no.
Oh, I totally believe that there's aliens
and some kind of,
they'd be traveling and they'd be observing us.
And right now I think those aliens
are looking down on planet Earth and going.
- [Lisa] Yes, I would agree.
- They're behind the curve.
They just can't figure it out.
All right, well, Billy Ray,
later you will be performing a cover from your new album.
So what is it and why did you record it?
- Well the song is a LL Cool J song.
It's called "Mama Gonna Knock You Out."
- [Lisa] I love that song.
- I played ball, I was a boxer, and football, and baseball.
And my dad always had this saying, he'd say,
"Son, when you knock 'em out, you don't need no judge."
When you knock 'em out, you don't need a judge,
that means you can't get cheated by the referees.
And it was odd when we started making this album
we started messing around with this LL Cool J song,
and it just felt so fun.
And it was great to take that hip hop track
and just turn it into somewhat of,
we call this album Mojave,
'cause we kind of stumbled onto our own sound
of a mixture of country, southern rock,
blues, hip hop, rock and roll.
It's a little bit of everything.
And we call it the Mojave sound.
And we took "Mama Gonna Knock You Out" to the Mojave.
And it's a lot of fun to play, a lot of fun.
I'm looking forward to when this pandemic's over
and we can get back to the real life
and take the music out on the road.
And see the people
and everybody celebrate through the music,
and sing and dance, and love one another.
- Yeah, oh man, I miss shows, I'm with you.
Well, members from my band, y'all,
actually worked on this EP with you.
You wanna give 'em a shout out right now?
- What's up, Jaco?
- Jaco, you played on it?
I didn't know.
- He's a producer.
- What? You were so quiet and humble.
You didn't mention that at all.
- It's not out yet, right?
- Well, okay.
I'm like okay, Mr. Producer Man.
I didn't know that.
I always knew you were a bad ass musician,
I didn't know you did that, that's amazing.
Get it, Jaco.
All right, well Billy Ray's new album is called
"The Singin' Hills Sessions: Mojave,"
and you can buy it today.