Tish Cyrus Urged Billy Ray Cyrus to Play Miley’s Dad on Hannah Montana So Their ‘Family Could Be Together’

Tish Cyrus has no regrets when she looks back on the days leading up to the launch of the Disney Channel Hannah Montana, which launched her daughter’s career, while simultaneously skyrocketing her husband at the time.

Tish appeared on Call her dad alongside her oldest daughter, Brandi Cyrus, and the couple opened up about Miley Cyrus’ early days of fame — and how it affected their family.

The Disney Channel show has “become its own phenomenon,” Tish, 56, told host Alex Cooper, while Brandi, 36, said: “Hannah Montana he was simply different. And I don’t think anyone could have predicted it or imagined how big it would be.”

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Billy Ray, Miley and Tish Cyrus 2019.

Kevin Mazur/Getty

Miley, 31, played the titular pop star who played normal California teenager Miley Stewart, while her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, 62, played her on-screen father Robby Ray Stewart.

The decision to have the country singer, who rose to fame with his 1992 hit “Achy Breaky Heart,” join his daughter on screen was Tish’s.

“He was doing ‘Achy Breaky [Heart]’ and nothing else was working,” the mother of five told Cooper on Wednesday’s episode of the podcast. “And then I brought Miley to audition for Hannah and she got it. And then one of the casting directors made a joke, like, ‘Ugh, too bad we can’t afford her real dad.’ And I said, ‘Oh, maybe you can.’

“The family lived in Toronto before Miley booked the Disney Channel series,” Tish said, and moving the kids — Brandi, Trace, now 34, Miley, Braison, now 29, and Noah, now 24 — back and forth was ” really hard”.

“Miley already got it Hannah, and I was already stressed, ‘What are we going to do?’ I couldn’t, as a mom, have half my kids in Tennessee and be out [in L.A.] with Miley, like I just couldn’t do it. And so I said, ‘I have to bring all the kids.’ And that’s when I said to Billy Ray, ‘You should come audition for Dad. Because they love you and are really interested. Yes, it would be a pay cut, but our family could be together.’ ”

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Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus in ‘Hannah Montana’ in 2006.

Everett

The Call her dad the host also brought up Billy Ray’s comments in 2011 that the Disney series, which ran from 2006 to 2011, had “destroyed” the Cyrus family. He said GQ at the time: “It destroyed my family. I’ll tell you right now — the damn show destroyed my family.”

Both Tish and Brandi immediately disagreed. “Absolutely not,” said Tish, who divorced Billy Ray in 2022.

Brandi added, “Not at all… First of all, I don’t think the family is destroyed. We are doing great.”

“I just think he had a moment,” Tish said of the comment from more than a decade ago.

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Miley Cyrus accepted Record of the Year at the 2024 Grammy Awards.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Appearance of Tish and Brandi on Call her dad comes just days after Miley won her first two Grammys at Sunday’s ceremony. She won the awards for best pop solo performance and record of the year for “Flowers”. In her acceptance speech for the latter, she notably left out her father.

The singer thanked “everyone standing on this stage right now: Tom, Tyler, Michael and Greg. Our teams, my team, Crush, Columbia, my mom, my sister, my love, my main gays because look how good I look.”

Miley Cyrus left Billy Ray’s dad out of her acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year

Tish, Miley and Brandi Cyrus at the 2024 Grammy Awards.

Neilson Barnard/Getty

She then asked the team behind her, “Anyone else? Your wife, your fiancée, all the people we love. Thank you all.”

As she finished her speech, she joked: “I don’t think I forgot anyone. But maybe I forgot my underwear. Hi!”

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Hannah Montana can be streamed on Disney+.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education