Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
In this world, nothing is certain except for death, taxes, and Cyrus family drama. We were reminded of this once again on Thursday, when Trace Cyrus — Miley’s half-brother and co-founder of the early-aughts-era band Metro Station — issued an impassioned plea on Instagram to his father, Billy Ray, following the latter’s disastrous performance at a Trump inauguration event.
On Wednesday night, Trace, 35, published a heartfelt post addressed to his father. “Since my earliest memories all I can remember is being obsessed with you and thinking you were the coolest person ever,” he wrote in the caption. “I wanted to be just like you … Sadly the man that I wanted so desperately to be just like I barely recognize now. It seems this world has beaten you down.”
Trace’s public entreaty for his father follows Billy Ray’s disastrous performance at the Liberty Ball, a Trump inauguration event. The performance was rife with technical issues, with a clearly frustrated Billy Ray snapping when his guitar malfunctioned. “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,” he said into the microphone before hoarsely launching into an a cappella version of his ’90s hit, “Achy Breaky Heart.”
In his post after the inauguration-ball performance, Trace told his father that he and his sisters, Miley, Noah, and Brandi, “have been genuinely worried about you for years but you’ve pushed us all away. Noah desperately has wanted you to be a part of her life and you haven’t even been there for her.”
“You’re not healthy Dad & everyone is noticing it,” he added.
Though Trace didn’t specify what issues he believed his father to be struggling with, he said he thought he had a “pretty good idea,” referencing his own struggles with alcohol before offering his father support. “I’d love to help you if you would open up and receive the help. You know how to reach me,” he wrote. “Till that day comes I will continue to pray for you.”
Billy Ray has not yet publicly responded to Trace’s post. Yet in a statement to People, he did defend his inauguration-ball appearance, saying, “I wouldn’t have missed the honor of playing this event whether my microphone, guitar and monitors worked or not,” adding, “I was there for the people and we had a blast.”
This is not the first time in recent years that the Cyrus family’s struggles have made headlines. In 2023, rumors that Miley and her father were estranged started to circulate after she skipped his wedding to his (now ex) wife, Firerose. She did appear at her mother Tish’s 2023 wedding to Prison Break star Dominic Purcell, serving as the maid of honor. Miley also failed to mention her father during her 2024 Grammys acceptance speech when she received the Record of the Year award for “Flowers.” “I don’t think I forgot anyone, but I may have forgotten underwear,” she quipped at the end of the speech.
In a June 2024 interview with David Letterman on his Netflix show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Miley denied that she and Billy Ray were estranged. “What is so beautiful is that my parents, they served their children, and I know this. My parents served us and sacrificed so much for us. Anything we dreamed of, they made possible,” she said, though she also joked that she believed she inherited her “narcissism” from her father.
