Billy Ray Cyrus Biography

Birth Name : William Ray Cyrus

Date of Birth : 25 August 1961, Flatwoods, Kentucky, USA

Height : 6' (1.83 m)

Occupations : Singer-songwriter, actor, producer, philanthropist

Singer, songwriter, actor. Born on August 25, 1961, in Flatwoods, Kentucky. Once famous for his international hit country song, “Achy Breaky Heart,” his hunky good looks, and mullet hairstyle, Billy Ray Cyrus has built a career as an actor as well as a singer. The son of a politician, he started his singing career performing gospel music in a group with his father.

Cyrus went on to form the band Sly Dog in the early 1980s, and later found success as a solo artist, signing a recording contract with Mercury Records in 1990. His first album, Some Gave All (1992), hit the top of the pop and country charts, driven in part of the success of the single “Achy Breaky Heart.” The up-tempo song about heartbreak became a huge sensation, inspiring its own dance.

Despite his attempts, Cyrus wasn't able to replicate the success of Some Gave All. He quickly followed the album with It Won't Be the Last in the summer of 1993. Initially, the album sold well, entering the pop charts at number three, but it fell far short of expectations by only reaching platinum status. Storm in the Heartland, delivered in the fall of 1994, managed to go gold, even though it was ignored by country radio. However, by the time it finished its chart run, Cyrus had slipped from the public's eye. When he returned with the harder-edged, introspective Trail of Tears in 1996, the album only spent four weeks on the charts and didn't even go gold. Shot Full of Love followed in 1998 and Southern Rain was issued two years later.

Cyrus went on to appear as a celebrity contestant on the immensely popular dance competition show, "Dancing with the Stars" (2005- ), and was tapped to host the reality talent search "Nashville Star" (USA, 2003-07; NBC, 2008). As part of the new Cyrus multi-media domination, he hit the big screen as himself in the live concert video, "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds" (2008) and reprised his practical papa role in the blockbuster feature film spin-off "Hannah Montana The Movie" (2009). Cyrus family controversy began brewing in 2008, however, when Cyrus appeared alongside his blanket-clad teen daughter in a Vanity Fair photo shoot that brought the family's close-knit, conservative, Christian values into question. Disney further distanced itself from the teen star's increasingly un-Disney shenanigans when she performed a pole dance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, a performance that was defended as "artistic" by Daddy Cyrus.