Tish, Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards
Billy Ray Cyrus sat down with GQ magazine in December, just days after pictures of daughter Miley smoking out of a bong were leaked, becoming the latest controversy surrounding the young singer. In the lengthy interview, Billy Ray says that her rise to fame on the Disney show Hannah Montana “destroyed [his] family.” He says he wishes they never agreed to do the show and move to California. “I’d take it back in a second,” he told the magazine from his home in Tennessee. “For my family to be here and just be…safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic.”
The elder Cyrus, currently going through a divorce with wife Tish, accepts some of the blame for his family woes, admitting he should have been more of a parent and less of a friend to Miley. But he also blames Miley’s team, and says today he is “scared for her… [because] some of these handlers are perhaps more interested in handling Miley’s money than her safety and her career.”
The bong video was shot at her 18th birthday party, which Billy Ray says he refused to attend because it was being held in an age 21-and-up bar. When Miley’s team became aware of the lost cell phone containing the video, they wouldn’t let Billy Ray in on why finding the device was so important he told GQ. “They told me it was none of my business,” he claimed. “I’m dealing with somebody that had only known my daughter for possibly four years and I’m her daddy. I was pretty damn insulted….And I took that as the ultimate alarm.”
Billy Ray also used the interview to clear up what he says is another misconception. “I’ve never made a dime off of Miley,” he insisted. “You got a lot of people have made percentages off of her. I’m proud to say to this day I’ve never made one commissioned dollar, or dime, off of my daughter.”
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Sarah Skates has worked in the music business for more than a decade and is a longtime contributor to MusicRow.View Author Profile
