“A remix of rapper Lil Nas X’s song Old Town Road featuring Billy Ray Cyrus dropped
at midnight and the internet is feeling it.”
Before Lil Nas X recruited Billy Ray Cyrus for the Old Town Road Remix
Before he told Billboard, oh you think Old Town Road isn’t a country song watch this.
Before the song got cosigns from absolutely everyone on the internet including Will Smith,
Brother Nature and Mason Ramsey, The Cast of Avengers, and even country music legend
Reba McEntire.
“Country music has always been very diversified.”
And Before Billy Ray spat the hottest verse of the year, propelling Old Town Road to the
number one spot on Itunes
“One time after I did my vocals the guy stood up and said, “That s*** is fire.”
Billy Ray Cyrus lived a pretty humble life out of the spotlight for the majority of his
57 years. He was born in Flatwoods, Kentucky and raised a beautiful family. He played the
guitar and wrote songs but never released any because he didn’t ever think they were
good enough. His daughter did find some success through the Disney channel and later attempted
a hip-hop career, but later decided that wasn’t for her and put the mic down. But it was at
the age of 57 that Billy Ray’s life would change forever. He got a call from Lil Nas
X who had just put out the country trap banger of the year with Old Town Road. Lil Nas heard
Billy Ray play at a local open mic night and knew he needed a verse from the singer. The
two got in the studio and when the song dropped, the internet exploded. Similar to what Kanye
West did for Paul McCartney, Nas took an unknown singer and introduced him to the world. But
as for the rest of the story, well you know it because this is before they were famous…
Alright so, we’re obviously joking. Obviously. To that one dude in the comment section who
already typed, “he made Achy breaky heart you IDIOT” You can chill out now okay Timmy?
What’s going on good people in the comment section? I hope you’re having one Hecht
of a day, my name is Jeremy Hecht and today I’ll be taking you through the life and
career of Billy Ray prior to his newfound internet fame. If you’re new here and already
commenting that Michael looks different, I’m the LA host for this channel doing weekly
content. And don’t worry, I’ll give you the actual story, since a lot of kids out
there probably never knew Miley Cyrus’ dad made music and was actually a star in his
own right. We’ve covered Noah Cyrus, Miley Cyrus and recently did one where we talked
to Lil Nas X, so be sure to check those out after you finish watching this one. And I’m
gonna ask you a question now that you’ll have to stick around until the end of the
video to get the answer to:
Today’s question is:
What number did Billy Ray’s song Achy Breaky Heart 2 debut at on the Billboard rap charts?
Yeah that’s a thing..
But we’ll get into all that later in the video. So without further ado...
Let's get into it.
William Ray Cyrus was born on August 25, 1961 in Flatwoods Kentucky to his father Ron Cyrus
and mother Ruth Ann Casto. His father was a former steelworker turned politician but
unfortunately his parents split up when he was only 5 year old. As a kid, Billy always
felt like he didn’t belong. Growing up in a very Christian neighborhood, he felt a lot
of shame that his parents split up at a time when that was very taboo. And the fact that
he had step siblings, made it worse.
Music was always in Billy Ray’s family as his grandfather was a preacher and there was
always bluegrass and gospel music being played in his household. And Billy Ray was drawn
to that music from a young age and began singing at his local church at the age of 4. His father
sang in a gospel group called the Crownsmen Quartet and played guitar, but since Billy
Ray was left handed, he wasn’t able to play his father’s right handed instrument.
Originally, Billy Ray was a talented baseball player. As a kid he dreamed of playing in
the MLB for the Cincinnati Reds as a catcher. He even received a scholarship to Georgetown
College to play. But eventually, a moment of fate intervened. One day, while working
in a Kentucky tobacco warehouse, he won tickets to a Neil Diamond concert through a radio
contest. It was during the song “Holly Holy” when Neil stopped singing and told the crowd
“I don’t care if you’re white or black, rich or poor, man or woman, if you believe
in your dreams and you live for the light and God’s love, you can be anything you
want in this world.”
Cyrus felt like that was a message directed at him from God telling him to follow his
heart and go buy a left handed guitar. After seeing Neil perform live, he threw away that
old mit and bought himself a guitar. He gave up on his dreams on the field and began to pursue
music full time and at the age of 20, he learned how to play guitar, and he was pretty good
at it. He decided to move to Los Angeles to try to get a record deal. But the mission
was harder than it sounded in his head. He was sleeping in his neighbor’s car and unable
to make the right connections. He spent his early 20’s bouncing between LA and Nashville,
and was trying to find a record label who believed in his vison. But it was in 1990
when he was able to convince an executive to take a chance on him and he signed to PolyGram/Mercury
records and opened for country legend Reba McEntire that same year.
In 1992, he released his Some Gave All album, which debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard
Top Country Albums chart. The album went 9x platinum, selling over 20 million copies worldwide
and included the smash hit single, Achy Breaky Heart. The song reached #1 on the US hot country
songs chart, a slot that Lil Nas X’s song would have hit, had Billboard not removed
it. But as you can see kids, Mr. Cyrus is no stranger to the charts and success of his
own, pre-meme era. Achy Breaky Heart became certified platinum and ended up becoming Billy
Ray’s second biggest hit to date, behind the old town road remix of course based on
its trajectory.
But after touring the world as a country superstar, the reception to his second studio album “It
Won’t Be The Last” did not match the success of his first. So, Cyrus went back to his roots
and began recording Christian music. He released two Christian albums called Time Flies and
The Other Side. Only one of the singles released from the first album charted and the album
only hit number 56 on the country charts. But the second Christian album debuted at
number 5 on the top Christian album charts and number 18 on the country charts.
Billy Ray met Tish Cyrus while performing with his band at a local Nashville club. He
was not yet the superstar that he later became. And Tish was a young mother of two children.
She told People in a recent interview that Billy Ray’s first words to her were
“I’ve never seen you drink, ever, and I think that’s so cool.”
Prior to Tish, Billy Ray was married to Cindy Smith, and the two didn’t have any children
together. But, he was dating a woman prior to meeting Tish whose name was Kristen Luckey,
and she had Billy Ray’s child the same year that Tish had her first child with him. But Billy
Ray takes pride in being a father and has been a family man for most of his life.
Miley Cyrus was born Destiny Hope on November 23, 1992. Billy Ray told GQ of her name:
"I had a vision, a dream. I said, 'My intuition has told me that that little girl, her name
should be Destiny Hope Cyrus, because I feel like it's her destiny to bring hope to the world.
When Billy Ray was first breaking onto the scene, it was around the same time that Miley
was born, and his record label allegedly told Tish and Billy not to get married because
it could upset much of their Christian fan base. So the two got married in secret in '93
They bought a 500-acre ranch in Tennessee so that they could raise their family peacefully
and provide them a normal life.
But back to his story. After the success of his early work, Billy Ray’s music career
seemed to be dwindling so he took up acting. He appeared in multiple films and television
series’ but most notoriously, he was a main character on the show Doc as Dr. Clint Cassidy.
Since the show was filmed in Toronto, Billy Ray picked up his family and moved them to
Canada. It was there that Miley was introduced to musical theatre that inspired her love
for performing. She even appeared in Doc as a guest star.
But she grew into a superstar, getting her big break when she starred in the Disney show
Hannah Montana. And ironically, Billy Ray played her dad, Roby Ray Stewart in the show.
The family moved out to Los Angeles for the filming of the show and it’s that same show
launched Miley into a huge career as a pop star. But by the looks of it, Hannah might
be making a comeback…
Although, Billy stated that the show actually ended up causing some problems within their
family. He told ABC News in 2011 that
“Fame can be a dangerous animal and it’s a delicate thing.”
Just before moving out to Los Angeles, the family got baptized after Tish said that they
would be under attack and have to be strong in their faith.
In 2010, him and his wife Tish Cyrus were going to get a divorce, putting out a statement
saying:
"As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for our family... We are trying to work
through some personal matters. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers."
But in 2011, the two decided to reconcile their differences and stick together. There
were other reports about the two splitting up but they have since continued to stay with
each other as a beautiful couple.
In 2007, Billy Ray appeared on Dancing with the stars and became a fan favorite. He also
released the album Home at Last that year which debuted at number 3 on the country charts.
This was his first top five entry since “It Won’t Be The Last” now ironically insuring
that album was not the last, to do so. He released another album called “Back To Tennessee”
in 2008 but the album only sold 14,000 copies.
In 2009, Cyrus teamed up with Phil Vassar, Jeffrey Steele and John Waite to form a group
called Brother Clyde. Straying from country, their sound was considered more alternative
rock. But the group was short lived and Billy Ray went back to working on his next solo
album. In 2011, he released the album “I’m American.” The song called Nineteen became
the first song of Cyrus’s to chart since “A Good Day” In 2009.
While he has released albums since then, none of them have really made a huge cultural impact.
But it was early in 2019, when Cyrus would make a comeback to the mainstream forefront
of country music. But this time, in a different way than usual.
In December of 2018, Lil Nas X released the song Old Town Road online and began to promote
it through memes on his social media account. The song was a unique blend of trap and country
that had many scratching their heads when trying to clarify what kind of music Lil Nas
was making. The song caught fire through Tik Tok and Twitter, and eventually, Justin Bieber
posted the song on his Instagram story for his 100 million followers, sharing it with
a whole new audience.
The song became so popular online that it debuted on Billboard’s hot country songs
charts at number 19. But Billboard didn’t believe the song should be classified as country,
and quickly removed it for not having enough “traditional elements” of the country
genre.
Billboard received a lot of backlash, and support from both the hip-hop and country
communities poured in. One of the most unlikely vocal supporters, championing Nas’s country
credibility, was none other than Billy Ray Cyrus.
He tweeted at Lil Nas saying:
.@LilNasX Been watching everything going on with OTR. When I got thrown off the charts,
Waylon Jennings said to me “Take this as a compliment” means you’re doing something
great! Only Outlaws are outlawed. Welcome to the club!
Billy Ray was no stranger to a genre not accepting him. In fact, country music legend Travis
Tritt called his big single Achy Breaky Heart “the wrong direction for country music.”
So maybe Billy related to Nas’s struggle for acceptance and more than just Lil Nas’s
music, he connected to his story.
What’s even more ironic about this story is that when Billy Ray Cyrus released his
remix to his song “Achy Breaky Heart” called “Achy Breaky Heart 2,” as a single
wit Buck 22 in 2014, despite a lot of online criticism, it ended up charting at #11 on
Billboard’s hot rap songs chart. And while most fans would agree that the song wasn’t
really rap, or that good, the song was still allowed to go onto the charts. So with hip-hop’s
charts being so inclusive, it made the case of kicking Lil Nas’s country song off the
charts even more confusing.
what’s not country about it? What’s the rudimentary element of a country and western
song? Then I thought, it’s honest, humble, and has an infectious hook, and a banjo. What
the hell more do ya need?
A few days later, Billy Ray knew he needed to hop on the remix, telling Twitter:
A few days passed and I went to the studio to do vocals.When I finished the pass, I whistled
at the end of the song. Thats when the engineer stood up and said, “that shit is fire”
We’re keeping that! Glad you gusys are diggin’ the tune, love seeing all your
meme’s.... #OTR
The song quickly took the world by storm becoming the number one trended topic on Twitter and
creating some great memes to go along with it.
The song has been streamed over 21 million times on Twitter, 14 million on YouTube and
close to 10 million on Spotify at the time of this recording. And it’s only going up
from here.
So what will Billy Ray do with his new found resurgence into mainstream fame and his introduction
to a whole new audience? Well I guess we’ll have to wait and see, because this is Before
They Were Famous. Be sure to subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications!
As always, I’m Jeremy Hecht, I hope you have one Hecht of a day, let me know who to
cover next, dream good live better, and I’ll see you in the next video.