outside the ‘Hannah Montana’ soundstage
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Billy Ray Cyrus explains how he met Australian singer Firerose, to whom he isnow engaged. (Screenshot: Billy Ray Cyrus via Instagram)
Billy Ray Cyrus is engaged to Firerose and shares details about how they met —more than a decade ago when he befriended her outside the _Hannah Montana_soundstage.
The “Old Town Road” singer, 61, finally confirmed to People magazine onWednesday that he and the Australian singer/songwriter, 34, became engaged inAugust — four months after his wife of 28 years, Tish Cyrus, filed fordivorce. Billy Ray and Firerose have a new song, “Time,” out Wednesday, butperhaps more interesting than their musical collaboration is out they cametogether in the first place.
He told the outlet that 12 years ago, in 2010, while making _Hannah Montana_with his superstar daughter Miley Cyrus, he took his dog for a walk on theTribune Studios (now: Sunset Bronson Studios) grounds in Hollywood.
“I loved doing that show,” he recalled. “There’s a couple old pine trees onthe lot that look like Tennessee. Tex and I would go out there in the middleof the day and he’d take care of his business and we’d stretch and I’d thinkhow much I missed Tennessee. On that given day, Firerose came out of the frontdoor. There was almost a moment of, I don’t know, recognition. I was like,’This girl’s a star.'”
Firerose, then 22, came over to say hi to the dog and Billy Ray, whom sherecognized.
“She told me she’d had an audition and I said, ‘Well, I’m sure you got thejob,'” he recalled. However, Firerose, who doesn’t remember what the auditionwas for, didn’t. Billy Ray offered to take her inside and introduce her toproducers.
“I just thought, well, the casting agents, the producers, the writers,> they’re all on the floor of where we do Hannah Montana. And I actually> said to her, ‘Don’t ever take a strange man up on this offer, but, in this> case, Tex will testify that you will be totally safe,'” said Billy Ray, who> was 49 at the time. “I’m going to introduce you to a producer and you can> kind of make yourself at home and watch us rehearse and you know, maybe it> might lead to a role or just another contact at Disney.” And so, off me and> her and Tex went back to the studio and I think she met a lot of the cast> and met the producers, writers. And, in some ways, well, in a lot of ways,> we became friends.”
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Billy Ray, who married Tish in 1993, said they stayed in touch. Firerose — herlegal name (though reportedly born Johanna Rosie Hodges) — said, “Ourfriendship was so solid over the years.”
In Tish’s divorce filing, she said she and the “Achy Breaky Heart” singerlived apart for their final two years of marriage. Billy Ray told _People_that as they pandemic began, he and Firerose became songwriting partners.
“We began sharing music, and it just evolved,” he said. Firerose said “Billyconfided in me a lot of what was going on in his life,” referring to the endof his marriage. “I was just the best friend I could possibly be, supportinghim.”
Billy Ray said he asked Firerose, “who had been such a light of positivity,such a best friend,” if they could be more than friends. “It just evolved moreinto, as musical soulmates, to soulmates, happy, pure love that to me, Ididn’t know could exist.” In early summer, Firerose moved to his Franklin,Tenn., farm, and he proposed in August — initially sans engagement ring.
“Billy looked at me and said, ‘Do you, do you wanna marry me?'” she recalled.”And I was just like, ‘Of course I do. I love you.” She later picked out adiamond and designed her own ring. Billy Ray, who was married once beforeTish, said their love is “forever.”
Billy Ray also addressed rumors of estrangement with his children — inaddition to 29-year-old Miley, he’s dad to Brandi, 35, Trace, 33, Braison, 28,and Noah, 22 with Tish as well as Christopher Cody, 30, with ex girlfriendKristin Luckey.
“Everyone knew that that relationship was over a long time ago,” Billy Ray,who became a grandfather last year, said of his marriage to Tish, which nearlyended two times previously. “Everybody’s turning the page. It’s been a lot,but everyone knew that it was time for a change.”
Billy Ray and Firerose, appeared together on Live with Kelly and Ryan in2021 to promote their song “New Day” and she talked about meeting him a decadeearlier.
“Billy Ray’s been a phenomenal supporter of my music ever since then,” shetold Ryan Seacrest at the time.