Billy Ray Cyrus "cried" when he heard the song his daughter Miley Cyrus wrote for him
To celebrate the country music star's 64th birthday in August, the Flowers hitmaker gifted Billy Ray a song featuring Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham
8 October 2025
The moving track, which Miley described as a "peace offering", is about Miley wanting to be a "safe place" for her family despite their ups and downs.
She told CBS Sunday Mornings: "You know, you don't see your dad cry a lot. But with me and my dad, we just have always communicated better through music with each other."
Asked if they are "at peace now with each other", Miley replied: "Yeah."
In response to the interview on Sunday (05.10.25), Billy Ray admitted the song was like therapy for him.
He captioned an Instagram Reel of a throwback picture of him and Miley soundtracked to their duet Butterfly Fly Away: "Talk about a Sunday Callin !!! Started with @mileycyrus on CBS Sunday Morning. One great song can do more for the soul than a million therapy sessions.
"I agree! Music Changes Everything!!"
Explaining the meaning behind Secrets, Miley had told the Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky podcast: "I wrote this song about my dad, because I wanted him to tell me, even though they were secrets, even though I didn't really wanna know, I wanted to be the one he felt safe enough to tell me the things that were damning and damaging to the family."
She went on: "But I wanted him to think that, as a middle child, I'm old enough that I could take some of that you know. And I always wanted my family to feel like I was the safe place, that I always had the white flag when they came to talk to me."
Billy Ray celebrated his birthday on August 25, and shared his delight at receiving the special audio treat from the 32-year-old pop star.
Alongside a video of himself listening to the song on his smartphone while prancing around in the countryside, Billy captioned the Instagram post: "For my birthday, Miley gave me the gift of music and wrote me a song called 'Secrets' and got my favorite musicians, Fleetwood Mac, to play on it! I love you, Mile."
Miley shot to fame alongside her already-famous father when she was cast in the title role of Hannah Montana in the late 2000s, with Billy Ray playing her on-screen dad.
However, in recent years, Billy Ray is thought to have been in a feud with his daughter after leaving Tish and marrying Firerose, whom he divorced after less than a year of marriage.
Tish went on to marry Dominic Purcell, while Billy Ray - who shares Braison (31) and Noah (25) with Tish, and also adopted her children Brandi (38) and Trace (36), as well as having son Christopher (33) from a previous relationship - recently began a relationship with actress Elizabeth Hurley.
The congratulatory post came just hours after Miley broke her silence on the supposed family rift, admitting that she can "love both [of her parents] as individuals" now that they are settled into their own new relationships.
She told The New York Times: "I think timing is everything. As I've gotten older, I'm respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents - because my mom's really loved my dad for her whole life, and I think being married to someone in the music industry and not being a part of it is obviously really hard.
And so, I think I took on some of my mom's hurt as my own because it hurt her more than it hurt me as an adult, and so I owned a lot of her pain.
Now that my mom is so in love with my stepdad, who I completely adore, and now that my dad - I see him finding happiness too - I can love them both as individuals instead of as a parental pairing. I'm being an adult about it."
© 2025 Bang Showbiz, NZCity
