Billy Ray Cyrus Trivia: 19 interesting facts about the singer!

Billy Ray Cyrus is an American singer, songwriter and actor.

Let’s find out fun facts about him!

1. William Ray Cyrus was born August 25, 1961 in Flatwoods, Kentucky.

2. His parents were Ron Cyrus, a politician and former steelworker, and his wife, the former Ruth Ann Casto.

3. Cyrus started singing at the age of four. His parents divorced in 1966. His grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher. Growing up, he was surrounded by bluegrass and gospel music from his family.

4. His right-handed father played guitar however left-handed Cyrus tried to play his father’s guitar, but could not. He attended Georgetown College on a baseball scholarship before changing to music.

5. He dropped out of Georgetown during his junior year, realized he wanted to become a musician after attending a Neil Diamond concert, and set a 10-month goal to start a career.

6. In the 1980s, he played in a band called Sly Dog, before signing a record contract with Mercury Nashville Records.

7. Sly Dog was named after a one-eyed dog that Cyrus owned.

8. While trying to get a recording contract in Los Angeles, Cyrus suffered many hardships including living in his neighbor’s car.

9. However, in 1990, he was signed to PolyGram/Mercury. That same year, he opened for Reba McEntire.

10. Cyrus began to record and write music for his debut album, released in 1992.

11. Having released 12 studio albums and 44 singles since 1992, he is best known for his number one single “Achy Breaky Heart”, which became the first single ever to achieve triple Platinum status in Australia.

12. It was also the best-selling single in the same country in 1992 and was translated into more than 100 languages. Thanks to the video of this hit, the line dance catapulted into the mainstream, becoming a worldwide craze.

13. Cyrus, a multi-platinum selling recording artist, has scored a total of eight top-ten singles on the Billboard Country Songs chart. His most successful album to date is his debut Some Gave All, which has been certified 9× Multi-Platinum in the United States and is the longest time spent by a debut artist at number one on the Billboard 200 (17 consecutive weeks) and most consecutive chart-topping weeks in the SoundScan era.

14. It is the only album (from any genre) in the SoundScan era to log 17 consecutive weeks at number one and is also the top-ranking debut album by a male country artist. It ranked 43 weeks in the top 10, a total topped by only one country album in history, Ropin’ the Wind by Garth Brooks.

15. Some Gave All was also the first debut album to enter at number one on the Billboard Country Albums chart. The album has also sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling debut album of all time for a solo male artist. Some Gave All was also the best-selling album of 1992 in the US with 4,832,000 copies.

16. In his career, he has released 35 charted singles, of which 16 charted in the top 40.

17. From 2001 to 2004, Cyrus starred in the television show Doc.

18. The show was about a country doctor who moved from Montana to New York City.

19. From 2006 to 2011, he co-starred in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana with his daughter Miley Cyrus. As of 2016, he stars as Vernon Brownmule on the CMT sitcom Still the King.