Billy Ray Cyrus has reflected on the moment everything in his life came crashing down and how hitting “a low point” pushed him to rebuild from the ground up.
Hitting Rock Bottom
The country star says the fallout from the pandemic, the end of his marriage to Tish Cyrus, and a string of personal upheavals forced him to confront truths he’d been avoiding for years.
Billy Ray Cyrus admits he had slipped into a long stretch of creative silence before finally waking up to how far he’d drifted.
He said to People, “I had entered a period where I hadn’t worked for a really long time.”
“And then I realized today, I said, ‘Cyrus, you’re working now, man. Be careful what you ask for. You said you wanted to get on the ride? Well, here you go.’”
The 64‑year‑old singer’s personal life was equally turbulent. After divorcing Tish in 2022, he married musician Firerose in 2023. The toxic relationship ended the following year.
Finding the Courage
He has since found love again with actress Elizabeth Hurley, but Cyrus says the collapse of his second marriage forced him to face long‑standing patterns he’d been stuck in.
He admitted, “Sometimes change is scary, and I’ll keep doing the wrong thing for a long time because I’m scared of change.”
“But when I finally do get the courage up to commit in my mind and say, ‘I’m going to do this,’ then that’s the way it is. No looking back. I think that’s maybe sometimes good for everyone — to just let go.”
The emotional crash left him feeling stripped down and exposed. He said, “When you’re completely on the bottom, that is the only way to go – up.”
Relationship with Children
That rock‑bottom moment forced him to reassess everything, especially his relationship with his children. Billy Ray Cyrus is dad to Miley, Braison, and Noah, adopted Tish’s older children, Brandi and Trace, and also has a son, Christopher. He says repairing those bonds has been one of the most meaningful parts of his comeback.
Now, he says he’s finally finding peace again.
Cyrus quipped that he’ll “never going to be parent of the year,” but that doesn’t stop him from being proud of his brood.
He said, “Life is a series of adjustments, and I think my family always knew that. We’ve all been through a lot, and we’ve seen a lot. Whatever happened is in the rearview mirror.”
“The past is over and done. The future is what we have, and we got to look forward.”
Musical Comeback
Billy Ray Cyrus is gearing up for a major comeback with The Hill, his first full studio album in more than ten years, arriving June 16. The record takes its name from a rise on his Nashville property where his late mother, Ruthie, is buried – a quiet spot he’s returned to again and again during the hardest chapters of his life.