Billy Ray Cyrus Reveals Inspiration For New Single And How Johnny Cash Changed His Life

YouTube/Blue Cadillac Music

 

What a year Billy Ray Cyrus has been having. He starred and produced CMT’s very first scripted show, Still The King, which received rave reviews. It did so well, CMT announced pretty early on that it would be back for a second season.

Along with a hit TV show, Cyrus is getting ready to release his first album in three years titled Thin Line. 

During this exclusive look behind the scenes of his title track’s video, Cyrus explained the meaning behind the song he penned, which features singer Shelby Lynne.

“Some folks had asked me to explain ‘Still The King’ in one sentence,” he explained. “I said, ‘I guess, best said, it’s a thin line between Elvis and Jesus.“

Once he said that, he realized there were thin lines between a lot of things including “rich and poor, Chevy and a Ford”.

“The lines just [for ‘Thin Line’] started coming. I wrote it really quick one day in New York and it became the title track of the album and the first single,” he said. 

Filming in the house he raised his children in was the only option for the “Thin Line” music video.  He reveals, “We really couldn’t have done it anywhere else.” 

In the video, he carries around a letter that has influenced his entire career.

“Johnny Cash wrote me the letter that I’m carrying around in the video,” he says. “He wrote it to me in June of 1992. In some ways, he wrote it at a time that I was going through the storm of my life and to receive that letter from Johnny Cash, he ends it with ‘Let ’em have it, I’m in your corner’. Knowing that Johnny Cash was in my corner, that was my rock.”

Thin Line will be available on September 9, but if you preorder the album here on Amazon or here on iTunes, you will receive an instant download of “Hey Elvis”, featuring Glenn Hughes and Bryan Adams.

You will also get an instant download of a remake of the Don Williams classic “Tulsa Time” featuring Aerosmith rocker Joe Perry, as well as the title track!