Stumbling, bleary-eyed around the stage at Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day Liberty Ball last month, Billy Ray Cyrus cut a troubling figure.
His hair was dirty and tangled. His voice broken as he snapped angrily at assistants that his guitar wasn’t working, shouting: ‘Y’all want me to sing more, or you just want me to get the hell off the stage? I don’t give a damn.’
For those who witnessed the uncomfortable scene, it was a relief when the lights finally went down and — after a few more minutes of wandering aimlessly around in the dark — the 63-year-old singer staggered off.
But for Billy Ray’s children, this wasn’t just an embarrassing performance. Family insiders exclusively tell the Daily Mail that they saw it as terrifying public proof of their father’s mental and physical decline.
And, most tragically, it is just the latest escalation in a long-running crisis that has set Billy Ray against all but one of his offspring and pitted sibling against sibling as their famed musical dynasty threatens to tear itself apart.
Three days after the Inauguration, on January 23, Billy Ray’s son Trace, 35, took to Instagram to pen an open letter to his father, warning him that his condition is so dire that ‘the world may lose [him] far too soon’.
Stumbling, bleary-eyed around the stage at Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day Liberty Ball last month Billy Ray Cyrus cut a troubling figure. (Pictured: Donald Trump and Billy Ray Cyrus).
His hair was dirty and tangled. His voice broken as he snapped angrily at assistants that his guitar wasn’t working. (Pictured: Billy Ray Cyrus at the Liberty Ball).
But for Billy Ray’s children, this wasn’t just an embarrassing performance. Family insiders exclusively tell Daily Mail that they saw it as terrifying public proof of their father’s mental and physical decline. (Pictured L-R: Tish, Braison, Noah, Billy Ray, Brandi and Miley Cyrus in 2015).
Trace, who was adopted by Billy Ray when the country legend married his mother Tish, 57, wrote: ‘Since my earliest memories all I can remember is being obsessed with you and thinking you were the coolest person ever…
‘Sadly, the man I wanted so desperately to be just like I barely recognize now. It seems this world has beaten you down.’
But if Trace expected gratitude or recognition in return, he was sorely disappointed. Instead, Trace claimed his father retaliated with a legal threat. Then, sources close to Trace fired back.
‘You do not have to be a rocket scientist to see that Billy Ray is struggling,’ they told the Mail. ‘His legal threat against Trace is a joke to the siblings. What is he going to sue him for? Telling the truth?’
The children’s fear that something is deeply wrong with their father only worsened with the release of his latest single, ‘Lost’, in early February, in which his once deep and charismatic voice was all but gone — a toneless drone in its place.
And while daughter Noah, 25 and a biological child of Billy Ray and Tish, posted on her Instagram that she was ‘so proud’ of her father’s new song, behind the scenes others felt very differently.
One insider said: ‘This is the worst he has ever sounded, and it is more humiliating than anything he has ever released.
‘This goes to show that he is not himself right now. This song is very dark, and his kids are at a loss for words.’
It seems even Billy Ray may have realized he is in trouble. In the new song, he sings: ‘Darker instincts flood my mind… oh Lord, I’m lost.’
Three days after the Inauguration, on January 23, Billy Ray’s son Trace (pictured with Billy Ray and Miley) took to Instagram to pen an open letter to his father, warning him that his condition is so dire that ‘the world may lose [him] far too soon’.
The children’s fear that something is deeply wrong with their father only worsened with the release of his latest single, Lost, in early February, in which his once deep and charismatic voice was all but gone – a toneless drone in its place. (Pictured: Billy Ray in 1999).
Though Trace has been vocal in his concern about Billy Ray, his brother Braison, 30, is adamant that his father is fine.
Braison, a singer-songwriter himself, is collaborating with his father on a new album and produced ‘Lost’.
It’s a disparity that has ignited tensions between the siblings. Sources reveal that some of Billy Ray’s other children believe Braison is just taking advantage of their father to further his own allegedly floundering career.
‘Whoever decided it was a good idea to put Billy Ray into this song is clearly doing this for their own gain and does not have his best interests in mind,’ an insider said. ‘If this is what Braison is working with, he is not helping Billy Ray’s image one bit.’
‘Braison doesn’t want Billy Ray to get better,’ they dramatically claimed, ‘Braison wants to be able to slap his name on a Billy Ray album in hopes that he could have a sliver of the same sort of fame and respect that his sister Miley got with her talent.’
Indeed, Miley Cyrus’s superstardom, the Mail is told, has driven a wedge into this complicated mixed family.
Billy Ray’s first child, Christopher Cody, 32, was conceived with his one-time girlfriend Kristen Luckey, a South Carolina waitress. Only seven months later, Billy Ray got together with Tish and Miley, 32, was born. He then married Tish in 1993 and, in short order, they welcomed Braison and Noah.
Billy Ray also adopted Tish’s two children from her previous marriage, daughter Brandi, 37, and her younger brother Trace.
Of all the kids, Billy Ray singled out Miley as the one to groom for success.
‘[Billy Ray and Miley] were close, closer than Billy Ray was to any of his other children,’ well-placed sources told the Mail in January.
The two-time Grammy winner coached his daughter’s musical talents and pushed her to pursue her break-out part as Hannah Montana in the wildly successful children’s show that aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between 2006 and 2011.
Billy Ray adopted Tish’s two children from her prior marriage, daughter Brandi, 37, and her younger brother Trace. (Pictured: Miley with Tish and Billy Ray in 2019).
Billy Ray even moved with Miley from Nashville to Los Angeles for filming, leaving his other children behind.
‘It was then that her siblings started developing jealousy towards her,’ the sources said. ‘Billy and Tish seemed to only care about her. She was their cash cow.’
But even Billy Ray’s joy at her success allegedly didn’t last long. As Miley began to surpass her father’s talents, those close to the family say it drove him mad with envy.
‘Over the years their dynamic changed and when Miley became the star of the family and Billy’s star faded, he became bitter at her successes,’ one source said.
Meanwhile, Billy Ray’s personal life was falling apart as his marriage to Tish crumbled. The union was plagued by allegations of adultery.
‘As much as they loved each other, they also hated each other,’ a source said. ‘Billy accused Tish of cheating, and many believed this was because he was cheating. There was a lot of abuse on both sides.’
Billy Ray first filed for divorce from Tish in 2010, only for them to reconcile. Then three years later, Tish filed for divorce, but she, too, withdrew the complaint.
They stayed married for another nine years, until they finally split for good in April 2022 after 28 years. Tish revealed she had ‘put up with disrespect in every form’ during their marriage.
Miley, Brandi and Trace reportedly sided with their mother in the aftermath — and have remained close to her since — which further angered their father, while Braison and Noah reportedly sided with Billy Ray.
It didn’t help that Tish moved quickly on with actor Dominic Purcell, 55, who had reportedly dated her daughter Noah just before he and Tish got together.
A source told People last year: ‘Noah and Dominic were seeing each other in a friends-with-benefits way, off and on. They stopped seeing each other and then Tish started something up.’
Tish and Purcell married in 2023.
Meanwhile, Billy Ray took up with singer Firerose who is 27 years his junior and whom he met while she was auditioning for a role on Hannah Montana in 2007. They also married in 2023 but divorced less than a year later.
In court documents, Firerose claimed Billy Ray was psychologically, verbally and physically abusive and had substance abuse issues. Billy Ray has denied the claims and called them ‘mind-boggling.’
Miley, Brandi and Trace reportedly sided with their mother in the aftermath – and have remained close to her since – which further angered their father, while Braison and Noah (pictured left) reportedly sided with Billy Ray.
Billy Ray moved with Miley from Nashville to Los Angeles for filming, leaving his other children behind. (Billy Ray and Miley are pictured for Disney Channel’s ‘Hannah Montana’).
Leaked audio obtained by the Mail in July last year gave the first real insight into the behavior that Billy Ray’s family members are now so concerned about and reportedly proved the final straw for Miley.
The recording made for difficult listening with Billy Ray calling Miley a ‘devil’ and a ‘skank’. He then went on to describe Tish as a ‘liar… a whore… and a cheat.’
Sources tell the Mail that neither Miley nor her mother want anything more to do with Billy Ray: ‘Tish and Miley are on top of the world right now and do not look backwards and have no regrets. Billy Ray is a miserable old man who is now washed up and he knows it.’
For her part, one source said, Miley ‘has zero desire to repair this relationship – not after what he did to her mom.’ But they added: ‘At the same time, she does not wish him death.’
But the truth, according to these sources, is that if Billy Ray he does not work to improve the situation, the family will remain estranged: ‘Until Billy Ray gets the help that he needs, none of his children, aside from Braison, will be a part of his life.’
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