How a country star went from living in a car to a global phenomenon
In short: Before he was a household name, Billy Ray Cyrus faced extreme hardship in Los Angeles, even living in a neighbor's car. Yet, his debut album would eventually shatter records, becoming the best-selling debut by a solo male artist and launching a global line-dancing craze.
The early 1990s marked a meteoric rise for the Kentucky-born singer. After struggling to find his footing in Los Angeles, Cyrus signed with PolyGram/Mercury in 1990. His 1992 debut, Some Gave All, became a historical anomaly on the charts. It held the number one spot on the Billboard 200 for 17 consecutive weeks—the longest run for a debut or country artist in the SoundScan era—and was the best-selling album of 1992 in the US, moving 4,832,000 copies.
The engine behind this success was the single "Achy Breaky Heart." While it topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart, its impact was truly international, reaching number one in Australia and number three in the UK. The accompanying music video triggered a global line-dancing craze. The album's massive scale is evidenced by its 20 million copies sold worldwide and its 9× multi-platinum certification in the United States.
Cyrus's career has been defined by unexpected reinventions and genre-bending collaborations. Decades after his country peak, he achieved his first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 via a remix of Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road." This track set a record for 19 consecutive weeks at the top of the Hot 100, earning Cyrus two Grammy Awards. Beyond music, his career spans roles in the Disney series Hannah Montana and even a cameo in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.
Despite the fame, Cyrus has navigated significant shifts in the industry, from the closure of PolyGram in 1995 to various label changes. He has even experimented with his own identity, briefly considering a legal name change to simply "Cyrus" in 2017, though he ultimately reassured fans he would remain Billy Ray.
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