Billy Ray Cyrus feels he is due for a career makeover and is therefore implementing several ingenious edits to his life’s work, according to an interview with Rolling Stone published Friday.
First, Billy Ray is recording a new, swampier version of “Achy Breaky Heart” in honor of the song’s 25th anniversary. Second, he is releasing a “Spanglish” version of “Achy Breaky Heart.” Third, he is releasing an EDM interpretation of “Achy Breaky Heart.” So he’s growing artistically in several different directions.
But, most exciting, Billy Ray revealed in the interview that he will now only be releasing new music—i.e. new covers of “Achy Breaky Heart”—under the name “Cyrus.” Here is Cyrus’s explanation, per Rolling Stone:
“After August 25th, I will be the artist formerly known as Billy Ray. I’m just going by my last name Cyrus. I always went by Cyrus, and I begged Mercury Records to call me Cyrus in the beginning because that’s what I was comfortable with. I’m going to the hospital where I was born in Bellefonte, Kentucky, and legally changing my name.”
This name-change concept is either very cool, or I don’t care about it at all. But I’m definitely looking forward to that EDM remix and visiting the kinds of bars it will be playing inside of.