Billy Ray Cyrus announced a new album on Friday in the wake of his lackluster performance at the post-Inauguration Liberty Ball and amid family drama heightened by new contributions from his most recent ex-wife.
Two days after Cyrus faltered through her two-song inaugural set in Washington, D.C., her son Trace Cyrus sounded an alarm about the musician. Then on Thursday, the “Achy Break Heart” singer's ex-wife, Firerose, backed up Trace's comments in her own public comments.
Just as he did with his Liberty Ball appearance, Billy Ray Cyrus seemed to downplay those concerns on Friday when he announced that his next album would be produced by his son Braison. Earlier this week, representatives for Billy Ray declined to comment on the family's concerns.
“This is art imitating life, imitating art,” the two-time Grammy Award winner said Friday in a statement. “It begins and ends with art. Braison is very talented and [2025] It's your year. I'm glad to be part of that. This album will be special. I'm preparing for what will be the trip of a lifetime.”
Firerose's recent thoughts came in response to Trace Cyrus' open letter, posted Wednesday on social media, in which she said her family, which also includes Trace's younger sisters, pop stars Miley Cyrus and Noah Cyrus, and older sister Brandi Cyrus, were “Really Concerned” by the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer. Trace said he “could barely recognize” his father as the man he once idolized, and that he and his sisters have been worried for years. He claimed that the patriarch “had driven us all away.”
“You are not healthy dad and everyone is noticing,” she wrote, adding, “I hope you realize this message is only coming from a place of love and also fear that the world will lose you too soon.”
On Thursday, Billy Ray Cyrus' ex-wife FireraSe echoed some of those sentiments, telling Page Six that “what's seen in public now reflects a lot” of what she experienced privately during their relationship, which it ended abruptly amid accusations of abuse and fraud.
“It's very sad to see those same struggles continue for him, but I'm glad the truth is coming to light, for his potential good because healing is only possible when you face the truth and accept that there is a problem,” she told the outlet. . .
Cyrus and Firerose, who met in the early 2000s while working on Disney Channel's “Hannah Montana” and sparked a relationship years later, announced their engagement in November 2022 and Wednesday in October 2023. They revealed they were divorcing less than a year later, and The Messy Dissolution was set last August after more than a month of tension. Cyrus has since characterized the marriage as a “crazy crazy scam.”
But Braison Cyrus said in Friday's statement about the upcoming album that he had spent the last year getting to know his father better, hearing stories, jokes and songs that others don't have.
“It's an opportunity to tell my father's story through music, and I'm lucky to be able to take it,” he said. “Music, stories and family are the most important things to my dad, so to bring the two together is a full circle effort.”
Then, in an Instagram Story, Braison revealed that his father spent a week in the hospital in the fall: “I'm grateful that my dad is happy, healthy and ready to make this record,” he wrote. “It's a rare opportunity to do something so special and tell my father's story through music. I can't wait to finally share it.”
The as-yet-untitled record will be released this summer via Roam Man Productions and will be distributed by indie label Empire. It will feature songs co-written by father and son. Although Billy Ray Cyrus has released several independent singles in recent years, including a remix of “Old Town Road” with Lil Nas X and a few songs with Firerose, the upcoming album will be his first since the release of “The Snakedoctor Circus.”
Cyrus shares five children with ex-wife Tish Cyrus-Purcell, whom he married from 1993 to 2022: Trace and Brandi, whom he adopted after Tish had them with her first husband, Baxter Neal Helson; In addition to Miley, Braison and Noah, the children they had together. He is also the father of Christopher Cody, whom he welcomed with ex-girlfriend Kristin Luckey in 1992.
Times staff writer Alexandra del Rosario contributed to this report.
