“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.
