Billy Ray Cyrus

Billy Ray Cyrus Interview Transcription

I’m with Al Shilts (his management company) now. You know, everything seems to be pretty much saddled up and ready to go here. We’ve got a new single coming out on the 27th and some major reporting radio stations are already added it early. It’s called “Time For Letting Go”.

The album release date is September first. You know, even though I do public speaking here and there, the hardest thing in the world for me is to get up in front of some people and give a speech. I get nervous before I go on-stage each and every show, but to give a speech is even harder. I usually take a few little note cards with me that kind of are guidelines to what I want to say.

When I give a speech, I like for everything to mean something.

If I’m going to be somewhere to speak, you just never know what the ears are going to pick up and hopefully you can leave people with something more.

My thing is any time I can help somebody and show people that dreams and goals can be achieved.

What the mind of man conceive and believe, it can achieve. The things that you believe inside, is important. Anytime I can teach kids that or anybody can look at my life and realize that if Billy ray can reach his dream and he’s just a man from Flatwoods, Kentucky, then I can reach my dream too. Whenever I speak in public, I like to leave people with that too.

Whenever I was playing my music back in the ’80’s, I used to go to elementary schools back in Eastern Kentucky and Southern Ohio and I’d give little talks on setting and achieving goals. And I still try to do that now. I think that this album is going to be a very unique album. I’ve always been kind of diverse with my music and gone from left to right a whole lot. This album goes straight down the center. Keith Stegall who produced the single, was very good for me. It was great to get back on radio and get back on the charts. It feels really good to get back on radio.

You know, this year has been a really special year for me and I have a feeling that this year is the year I’m going to finally move on and go to the next stage of my career.

I mean at Fan Fair, well Fan Fair belongs to the fans and I was simply tickled pink that the fans gave me so many awards and the way they treated me was something I’ll never forget. You know this summer has been a gift from the fans. I don’t think they know how much their support has meant to me this summer. It’s like their gift to me. It’s been overwhelming, because it’s from the fans and God knows that my fans have stuck through thick and thin with me and lately there’s been a whole lot of thin. That’s why, whenever my true fans who have seen me play my music for all those years, hear someone on the radio or on TV or in the press, call me an overnight success, they get ticked off too.

They get mad about that and they write to me and tell me about it. They’ve seen me and they’ll tell me they’re writing to these newspapers or magazines or calling up some radio station and telling them,’Billy Ray’s not some overnight sensation. I saw him singing with his dad’s Gospel quartet when he was four years old.’ It’s very well documented. I mean there’s footage of me (on the life and times of Billy Ray Cyrus on TNN) singing in my dad’s gospel quartet my mom and papaw’s bluegrass band as well. To this day, when somebody calls me an overnight success they’re pretty mistaken. It’s pretty well documented too. There’s pictures and movies of me singing everywhere.

I recently was with Jerry Springer. I did a few show with him and he’s a good friend. I love him a lot. Jerry’s a very entertaining man. We met down in Nashville and I invited him out to the farm. It was after the Grand Ole Opry, so it was about midnight or one a.m.. He lived in Chicago so he’d never been on a four wheeler before. So he got on one and I got on one and we went up on top of this mountain where my teepee is and sat up there and looked at the stars and talked about a lot of things. He’s a very intelligent man. An extremely intelligent man. He’s a good fighter too(he laughs). The titled track of my new album “Time For letting Go” is an accurate title for what’s happening in my career right now.

This is a time in my career where my past, present and future have all come together. It’s a time to let go. I mean, trust me, I love having on my tennis shoes and I ain’t no dancer, but I do like getting up on-stage and doing whatever it is that I do, but it just feels like it’s a little more of a mature time maybe for me and my career. Obviously my hairs a shorter. The record people and the people around me have all agreed that this all goes back to the time I was recording my album “Trail of Tears” When we started recording that album, we were recording the demo tapes for that album at my guitarist’s house back in Kingston Springs, Tennessee.

At that time, I had taken a beating on my career and I really didn’t know where to go next with my career. I just love making music so, Terry Shelton had this studio in his house and we starting recording these songs there. Well, Luke Lewis (?), the head of my record company came out and whenever he heard that music he said,’Wow, just do this. This may not be a commercial success for us but the critics will have to listen to your artistry and you’re singing and the songs that you’ve wrote. The fact that you’re not doing this in a big recording studio in Nashville, you’re doing this in this guys basement, even if it takes a year, keep on doing what you’ve been doing. So for the “Trail of Tears” album, we spent almost a year recording. When the album came out Luke was exactly right, the album was very highly critically acclaimed and go great reviews around the world. So then Luke said,’OK, this is the new foundation. Now let’s go see if we can get you back on radio.’ And we went and cut “It’s All The Same To Me’, with Keith Stegall producing and Luke was right, it worked.

So now that we’ve got that opportunity to get back on radio, we all wanted to step back and give it some time and make an album that is really going to be a statement. I started recording this new album in October and I just did the video for the new single. After this show, I’m going to Washington to do the coolest thing. The turner network has something called “Return of the eagle”. It’s a wildlife show that they do. These kids who have grow up in some of the ghettos and rougher areas in Washington DC have raised these eagles from eggs and now they’re taking them out and returning them back out into the wild. So I’m actually going to do that tomorrow. The day after that, we’re going to see some eagles nests in Richmond,. Virginia. Then I’m going to Alaska in November. It’s the largest congregation of eagles in the world. So, the show is called “Return of the Eagle” and I’m kind of the host of it. They’ve heard the song “Trail of Tears” and in the song it says,’And let them sail like eagles across the trail of tears.’ So, I’m going straight to do that project tomorrow and then I’m going to Nashville and finish mixing the album.

Out tour is in full swing. It’s weird, all of a sudden, I’ve hit this swing where everything is really moving fast again. It feels really good. I love it. This times different then the first time because I’m really enjoying it. I’m really happy. I’m at peace with who I am and the part that I play in country music and the history of country music.

I know my part now and I’m satisfied with that. I know that every now and then in country music, somebody comes down the pike who is not like everyone else and doesn’t exactly fit in. Whether it’s fair or unfair, I happen to be an individual who happened to be that chosen person who was different. I make music from inside. If it’s right or wrong or indifferent, I’m now happy with that. The fans are there for me, they’ve stayed. I feel like this new album is something that’s very unique and I’m excited about it.