LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 12: Billy Ray Cyrus attends The Olivier Awards 2026 with Cunard at the Royal Albert Hall on April 12, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

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Billy Ray Cyrus has lived multiple lives atop the music and pop culture world. From the record-breaking successes of “Achy Breaky Heart” and “Old Town Road,” with Lil Nas X, to being there by the side of his daughter Miley Cyrus as she ascended to superstardom on Hannah Montana.

As he tells it he wasn’t sure he’d get a third act atop the music game when COVID destroyed all the “Old Town Road” celebrations in 2020. But as they say, “Everything happens for a reason.”

Now, five years later, Billy Ray is getting that third act by combining his two favorite roles – dad and musician. His son Braison spearheaded Billy Ray’s upcoming album, The Hill, by assembling the band for the record, producing the album and writing multiple songs on the record, including the stunning lead single, “On Our Way Along.” A duet with daughter Noah, the song is a haunting, gothic country meditation on mortality and fate that carries the gravitas vocally of the records Johnny Cash made with Rick Rubin.

After Billy Ray and Noah kicked off the single with a memorable performance on the Today Show, the two sat down with me to share their beaming mutual pride of working together. Then, a few days later I spoke with Braison to get his take.

Steve Baltin: Congratulations on the song. It is f**king amazing.

Billy Ray Cyrus: Thank you. I hope you keep that F-bomb in there when you describe it. I love the passion of the F-bomb.

Baltin: It's a special song; it has to inspire passion. It's so heavy, but what I really love about is also the simplicity of the sentiment of all the paths we could have crossed, I'm just glad ours did. What did that line mean to you guys?

Noah Cyrus: Every single day of my life, I wake up. thankful that somehow my soul ended up in my mama's tummy that was with this amazing man. That all is just by such a major and infinite chance and the fact that I got to be his daughter in this lifetime. And the fact that the lifetime is so short as well, while we're here to me, it's just looking back and being so grateful that our souls met and we're here at the same time. If they’d met before that they found their way back to one another. That's how I feel about time and life and spirit and about a lot of it. I'm glad that you mentioned that line specifically, because to me, that really represents eternal love and that luck of the draw that I ended up your daughter and us living this life together.

Billy Ray: To me, in life there are always crossroads. Every moment, every red light, every green light, every left, every right led us to this exact moment. No coincidence at all. Had my life been different in any other manner, this wouldn't have happened that I could have had the honor of being Noah's dad and seeing Noah grow up and become this incredible young lady that she is. Having her voice coming in…you hear what I sound like right now. I basically sound like what I sound like on the record, a piece of sandstone as old as granite. My voice sounds rough and it's old and that's what I sound like. Then add her power and the pure aura that comes from her voice, crystalline is a way that I hear her voice. When her energy comes in on top of my old sandstone voice it really is a peanut butter and jelly effect. She's got the voice and the power and I'm just an old man singing my song but living this truth of the music, and I think the music is our truth and vice versa.

Baltin: You say your old sandstone voice, and I mean, that adds so much to it. This song gets so much more because it has that depth and character.

Billy Ray: Thank you for saying that. My son, Braison, that produced the album, he had a really great sense of not only writing the element of what the song's about, but he put together an incredible, eclectic group of musicians to play the album live, cut the album live on the floor of the world-famous Castle Studios in Nashville, which you might know. That's where Al Capone hid out when he was on the run in Tennessee. It's called The Castle. And it had been 14 years since I cut an album on the floor with a live band. As you know, in today's world a lot of it is track by track and different ways to record. This was a floor full of great young musicians that my son was really aware of that together brought a sound with this batch of songs. It really created a moment that I think again of all the paths we could have crossed; this is a real special moment in my life and I'm glad to get to play this game again with Noah. I didn't know if I’d ever get to play the game again. In 2019 with “Old Town Road” and being on top for that time period [was great] and then 2019 ends, they hand me a couple of Grammys in January and then they close the door and say the world's closed for the next five years from the pandemic and there’s so much change that it really created a moment. We survived it all. And we're in this beautiful moment of the synergy of it all, which is music.

Baltin: How much does it mean to you to get to sing this song written by your brother with your dad?

Noah: I'm my dad's biggest fan. So anytime I get to sing with my dad, I am just more than excited to do so. As much as I look at this as an opportunity for me and my dad to go and experience this all together, man, I'm just so happy for the world to know Braison. And Braison has really been there for me through every aspect of my entire life. I was always such an admirer and so in awe of his raw and natural God given talent that he has. And this gift of being able to write and produce and pick up instruments that I could never play. I still have many years more that I get to be Noah and make music. But in this moment, I get to be his daughter and Braison’s sister and just be proud that the world gets to know Braison and his talent. Because it truly has made me who I am as an artist. I wouldn't know Fleet Foxes if it wasn't for Braison. And I wouldn't know My Morning Jacket and love Pink Floyd and these artists that I love so much if it wasn't for those two showing me those artists. And to be able to give that back and experience that with them is so important to me and means so much to me. I've made two albums about how much family means to me and the importance of family and forgiveness and moving forward. And I just think that this whole record and this album that he made is such a testament to that. I'm so proud to be a part of it and for the world to also hear my dad as like the amazing rock star that he is.

Baltin: Billy, in the Instagram post, you talked about how much it means to be singing this with Noah. You've had so much success, but being able to share this with your family, where does that rank for you?

Billy Ray: It harkens back to what I was saying there again about 2019 and getting a couple of Grammys in January and then doing one show with Neil Diamond before they closes down the world and the pandemic sets in. Brings us to five years later and this moment of sitting here with Noah and this album with Braison going, “I didn't know if I'd ever get to be in the music world again, leaving out of where ‘Old Town Road’ left off. Then 2020 was going to be playing the biggest festivals in the world and doing all this. So many great opportunities that unfortunately through time and the pandemic, things just started canceling.” And I go, “Man, maybe I missed my window. My whole goal of 2020 was to celebrate 2019.” I was just going to have fun and play music and see people happy around the world. But things played out a completely different way. So, when Braison mentioned doing this album over a year ago and said, “Dad, I just want to take you into the studio and just capture who you really are, I don't think people understand exactly who you are, and I want them to hear you the way I hear you.” I said, “Man, you call the shots, pick the studio, pick the band, let's get the songs.” And we went in and started doing it. So, we just played the Today Show, the record came out today, sitting here with Noah, going full circle with Braison and his album, and he had already sent me a note. He saw the Today Show, and he dropped some serious F-bombs on how much he loved it and the song, and it just made me feel so good.

Baltin: How does it feel to be playing the game again?

Billy Ray: Rocking's hard, man. I got a jet yesterday and the first jet had a problem. You could smell diesel fuel in the cab. So, we came off the runway, parked that jet, and got a different one. And by the time I'm into it, like six or eight hours, getting to New York and going, “Man, it's hard.” It had been a while since I really worked this hard. Again, working last week on the Kelly show and being in this moment. It had been a while, but I love the road. I love the fans. I love making music and looking forward to joining Noah out at Stagecoach and letting the horses run.

Baltin: What do you want people to take from the album and what do you want people to know about your dad?

Noah: What I would want people to know about the album is I think that people have this perspective on who or what they think my dad is or should be or maybe was. But I think the one thing that they've never really known is him in the now. You never knew who he was personally at that specific time. You saw him as these icon figures in Hannah [Montana] and as big as he was with songs like “Achy Breaky Heart” and the different seasons and career changes. Growing older and with time you want to express yourself differently as an artist. I just think it's so important that people know who he is now as the man he is today with the things that he's been through. And I think that's a really important and a gracious thing that people can do is listen and look at that as this human baring their soul to the world. It's a very vulnerable and brave thing to do as my dad. I'm just excited for people to know him now, his voice now, his message now, who he is now.

Billy Ray: Thank you, Noah. For me, when they listen to the album, I hope they hear a cohesive body of work that's very diverse in musical styles and emotion. Back in the day when I bought great albums, whether it was The Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Cash, whoever it was, their albums were a cohesive body of work that you go, “That artist was living that at that time.” Well, in this moment of this album, The Hill, I was living every word, every song, every beat. I think when you hear the record, you'll go, “Yeah, man, this dude's living this stuff. This guy's living this.” I'm living what I'm singing and singing what I'm living. George Jones has said that that to him the definition of an artist is somebody that's singing what they're living. Most of all, first and foremost, I'm this little girl's dad and I love her so much. And this is one of the greatest moments of my life to be getting one more shot to go full circle and starting with my little girl.

Baltin: I got to talk to Noah, who's a friend, on Friday with your dad. And she credits you largely with her amazing music taste.

Braison Cyrus: Yeah, I would say so. I drove her to school and to her horseback riding lessons for the better part of a decade so I would hope so.

Baltin: When you were writing for your dad on this album, were there things that came out that surprised you?

Braison: I would say that the songs that I wrote for my dad's record and the song of mine that Noah ended up cutting were very intentional. Probably a level of intentionality I've never really put into my own songs. I think for my own stuff, I definitely look at it and be like, “This is generally what I want to want to say or what I want to do.” But definitely with my dad's stuff and the song that Noah cut of mine, called “Don't Put it all on Me,” those were very intentional and crafted for them specifically. Whenever I'm writing for somebody else, especially somebody who I know very, very well, like my dad or Noah, sometimes I think I can say something that they would say if they weren't so close to themselves. I could say something about something my dad or Noah experienced as an observer and put that more clearly. Maybe something that's in their subconscious, but that I'm able to transcribe as an observer.

Baltin: What does it mean to you to get to lead this record for your dad?

Braison: You realize, “Hey, my parents aren't going to be around forever. And I've got this unique opportunity to do this for my dad.” I think, honestly, I probably pitched the idea of me cutting a record for him for about two years. And either I got busy or he got busy. Then it seemed like this was just the best time to do it. So, it's something that I always wanted to do. But this was the time that it ended up happening. But it was a really cool experience. And I think that the experience in the studio is also vastly different from the experience outside of the studio. When you're in the studio, everything is fun. Even opening up a pack of M&Ms is fun in a studio, because that's all you're doing. You're not really thinking about the outside world too much.

Baltin: Will you be involved with the live show he puts together?

Braison: Anytime we can get together and do something live, I'm always stoked to do it. But also, I've always had an affinity for being the person in my family that's the most in the background. So, for this record, I'm also looking forward to seeing what he does with it once it's out of my hands and into his. I'm more excited for that, because I think he's going to take it and do something cool with it.