Overcoming Perception Contrary To Belief Billy Ray Cyrus Is No One-Hit-Wonder; His 7Th Album Comes Out This Week
Singer, songwriter, performer, actor, humanitarian, husband, father of six. These are all titles Billy Ray Cyrus will happily answer to.
What he is less inclined to respond to is any lingering notion that, eight years and six albums after his smash breakthrough hit, “Achy Breaky Heart,” he remains some kind of one-hit wonder.
Indeed, Cyrus has had numerous hits and sold millions of albums in that time. But he’s still trying to overcome a certain perception that remains the legacy of “Achy Breaky Heart.”
“It’s time for this industry to stop punishing the poor man for having a huge success with that song,” says Sony Music Nashville executive Mike Kraski. “Regardless of what people’s critical feelings about it are, it made millions of people happy and made millions of people dance and contributed to the health of country music, so what’s the problem here?”
“Southern Rain,” Cyrus’ seventh album and first for Sony’s Monument Records, is due in stores Tuesday. He describes the album in one word: “real.”
“It’s not some big, slick production of a bunch of drippy stuff,” says Cyrus. “It’s a real album that has a soul and a spirit.
“Perhaps for the first time in my career, I don’t have to worry about being overshadowed by the myth or the hype of who I’m supposed to be or not supposed to be.”
Among the album’s best cuts are the title song, the ballad “I Will,” and the funny, though less than politically correct, “Burn Down The Trailer Park.”
Another of the album’s tracks, “We The People,” was adopted in August as the official theme song of the George W. Bush Republican presidential campaign. It features guest vocalists Waylon Jennings, John Anderson, and Monument labelmates Danni Leigh and Montgomery Gentry.
Cyrus, a registered Democrat, sees the song as a nonpartisan anthem about the importance of voting.
“The song is about the people being the power of the country,” he says. “The people built this country and will continue to guide this country as long as everybody goes out and votes.”
Cyrus is as well-known for such flag-waving anthems as he is for his humanitarian efforts. Recently, for example, he purchased a tractor-trailer load of bottled water and had it delivered to the draught-plagued town of Throckmorton, Texas, after hearing about conditions there.
Among Cyrus’ newer interests is acting. He stars in the upcoming PAX-TV movie “Doc” and has a cameo in the New Line Cinemas film “Wish You Were Dead.” Past screen credits include starring in the TV movie “Mulholland Drive” and the film “Radical Jack.”
Cyrus previously recorded six albums for Mercury. The first, 1992’s “Some Gave All,” sold more than 9 million copies thanks largely to “Achy Breaky Heart,” the 1992 Country Music Association single of the year. His 1993 follow-up, “It Won’t Be The Last,” also went platinum. The third album, 1994’s “Storm In The Heartland,” was certified gold, but three subsequent albums, including 1996’s critically acclaimed “Trail Of Tears,” were less commercially successful. Cyrus eventually parted ways with the label.
“I had certain priorities in my mind that I thought would be really nice if they happened,” he says. “And oddly enough, my No. 1 priority was to be with this record company (Monument) and work with Dann Huff or Blake Chancey. I had no idea that the two of them would end up co-producing the album together.”
Huff and Chancey, Nashville’s hot producers of the moment, co-produced all of “Southern Rain” with the exception of the bonus track “Hey Elvis,” a Bryan Adams song.
“Both of them knew I play music by ear, by feel, and those guys had the wisdom to let me go in and rehearse with this team of world-class musicians and work the songs up from scratch, just like a bar band,” Cyrus says.
“I feel like the music has evolved into something quite special. I’m getting ready to turn it loose and see how far it can fly. That’s a scary thought.”