Billy Ray Cyrus
b. 25 August 1961, Flatwoods, Kentucky, USA. Cyrus comes from a preaching family and made his singing debut in his father's gospel group. In 1983, he formed his own band, Sly Dog, but they lost their equipment in a fire in Los Angeles. He then worked as a car salesman but he kept visiting Nashville in the hope of finding musical success. In 1992, he turned the Marcy Brothers' Don't Tell My Heart into the simple but immensely catchy Achy Breaky Heart. Although the Cyrus virus proved infectious, the songs rhythms were close to Don Williams' Tulsa Time. The video, in which the muscular, ponytailed Cyrus was mobbed by adoring women, also introduced a country music dance, the Achy Breaky. The song topped both the US pop and country charts and was easily the most successful country single released in the UK during 1992. Another star, Travis Tritt, derided Cyrus for turning country music into ‘an asswiggling contest’. Cyrus' album, SOME GAVE ALL, also topped the US pop and country charts, while he had a further transatlantic hit Could've Been Me and cut a parody of Achy Breaky Heart with the Chipmunks. Whether he will continue to have success is a moot point: it is unlikely that he will find material as irresistible as Achy Breaky Heart but his Mel Gibson-styled looks are very much in his favour.