The country veteran will release 'The Hill,' his first new record in 14 years, on June 16
NEED TO KNOW
- In a new PEOPLE cover story, Billy Ray Cyrus reflects on finding peace with his family, falling for Elizabeth Hurley and working with his children on his first new album in 14 years
- That album, The Hill, will be available everywhere June 16
- “The past is over and done. The future is what we have, and we got to look forward,” Cyrus says
Billy Ray Cyrus revs his red dirt bike — once, twice — then takes off, zooming up the biggest hill on his sprawling property outside of Nashville, where the country music star has lived for 30 years.
At the top he disembarks, stands still and takes in the view. "Want to meet my mom?" Cyrus, 64, suddenly asks. “She's buried over here.” Behind him is his mother Ruthie's grave. She died in 2022 during an already challenging period for Cyrus as he navigated a divorce and later an illness that left him hospitalized.
He comes to this hill every day, he says, and it's the inspiration behind his first original album in more than a decade. The Hill (out June 16) is Cyrus' emotional return after finding love again with actress Elizabeth Hurley, 61, following another divorce, patching things up with his once-fractured family and reconnecting with music when he worried his voice was shot.
Credit: Cedrick Jones
"I had entered a period where I hadn't worked for a really long time," he tells PEOPLE for this week's cover story. "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.' "
Cyrus first became a household name in 1992 with the worldwide success of "Achy Breaky Heart" off his debut album, Some Gave All. That's also when he decided to stop drinking.
"I am the most sober person in the world," he says now. "I did drink a lot until 1992, and I just quit. After 10 years of failure and being told no, I finally got a record deal, and that inner voice said, ‘This is going to happen, but you have to stop drinking.' So I just stopped."
A year later, he married Tish Cyrus (then Finley), with whom he shares Miley, 33, Braison, 32, and Noah, 26; he also adopted Tish's children, Brandi, 39, and Trace, 37, and has a son, Christopher, 34, from a previous relationship. He and Tish were on and off for much of their 28-year marriage, so the couple's split seemed inevitable by the time they divorced in 2022.
Credit: Cedrick Jones
"Sometimes change is scary, and I'll keep doing the wrong thing for a long time because I'm scared of change," Cyrus says of facing the end of his marriage to Tish, 59. "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."
Following the pandemic and his divorce from Tish, Cyrus found himself at a "low point."
In the span of just seven months, he'd married and then separated from an Australian aspiring singer named Johanna Rosie Scholem, 38. He cited irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct in the divorce papers; at the time of his May 2024 filing, he had also requested an annulment on the grounds of fraud. In related court documents, both parties accused the other of various forms of abuse before agreeing to settle that August.
"When you're completely on the bottom, that is the only way to go — up," Cyrus says of the fallout, admitting that he's "been to hell and back a couple of times."
Now on the other side of his pain, he's found harmony with his children, and while he may joke that he was "never going to be parent of the year," Cyrus' pride in the adults his kids have grown up to be is apparent.
"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," he says. "The past is over and done. The future is what we have, and we got to look forward."
Credit: Cedrick Jones
Plus, the family that plays together stays together: Braison produced and helped co-write The Hill, Noah duets with her dad on the record with track "On Our Way Along," and Cyrus joined Miley to tape Disney+'s Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special in February.
"All these years later it's going back to our roots as a family," Cyrus says. "And to be in this moment with them, it's just a great celebration of our family."
That family also supported him through recent health crises. The country veteran was diagnosed with vocal paralysis in 2024 — following what he describes as a near-fatal bout of sepsis that left him hospitalized before a "miracle" recovery.
The youngest member of his family, Braison's son Bear, 5, also gave him new perspective when he was still trying to find the light.
"In this very broken moment of my life, my little grandson Bear looked at me and said, ‘Try again.' And up until that moment, he had never spoken to me at all. I wasn't even sure if he knew my name. In that moment I thought, ‘He's telling you something.' Is it about love? Music? Somehow, I got to try again at both. So I'm learning to try again."
Credit: Cedrick Jones
Heart open, Cyrus put himself out there — and he and Hurley took their relationship public on Easter Sunday 2025 after first meeting on the set of a movie in 2022. In their year together, they've spent time flitting between Cyrus Nashville sanctuary and Hurley's glamorous London life. He says leaving Tennessee for the first time in five years to travel internationally with Hurley was the "craziest thing" he's ever done, "but," he adds, "I had to do it. This feels like something real."
After nearly four decades in the industry, Cyrus thought he'd be headed for retirement. Instead he found inspiration to take another crack at all life had to offer once he was, well, over the hill.
"What more could I ask for? I don't have anything to complain about," he says. "I like how everything looks right now. I finally found this wonderful place where I'm happy."
For more on Billy Ray Cyrus, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
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