Country singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus is set to release a new memoir next year! Billy Ray, who famously co-starred with his daughter Miley Cyrus on Hannah Montana, is writing ‘Hillbilly Heart‘ and publishing it exclusively with Amazon – due out in 2013.

Amazon.com, which has been aggressively expanding its publishing operation, announced Thursday that Cyrus would discuss with “great candor” everything from his early years to life as the parent of a teen superstar. Cyrus and his daughter starred together in the hit TV series “Hannah Montana.”

Others with Amazon deals include actress-director Penny Marshall and actor James Franco.

Reportedly Barnes & Noble is refusing to offer it.  It’s nothing personal against Billy Ray, they just won’t stock any releases that are published by Amazon.

Barnes&Noble Inc. announced earlier this week that it would not stock releases from its rival retailer.

Are you interested in what Billy Ray has to dish about? Miley? His marriage split and then later reconciliation? Any of it?

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In a recent interview, singer/actor Billy Ray Cyrus revealed that he could have been a better father to daughter and teen sensation Miley Cyrus.

He appeared on Good Morning America yesterday and ate words that he said back in December 2010 when he claimed that Hannah Montana destroyed his family.

“I love Hannah Montana. I love Disney. I wouldn’t change anything.[...]What I meant to say, and what I hope I said was … fame can be a dangerous animal and it’s a delicate thing. You know, when you get in this industry and … you strike so hard for that moment. But, fame is dangerous. Miley has a great heart. She’s very intelligent. She will make good choices and she knows right from wrong.”

He also says that he wants to make things right with his family and be a friend to his children.

“I did kind of approach being a dad as a friend. I was a great playmate. I mean, for teaching [my children] how to camp and build fires and ride motorcycles and four-wheelers, and horses, and all those fun kind of things. I was really good at that. As far as sitting down and doing algebra and science, the homework, I wasn’t very good at that. So I look back on it and think, ‘You know what? Maybe, no doubt, I could have been a better dad.’[...]I still want to be Miley’s friend.”

He goes on to say that he loves her “more than life itself.”

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Billy Ray Cyrus has called off his divorce, according to People. (I’ll refrain from using any Achy Breaky jokes)

“I’ve dropped the divorce,” Cyrus, 49, said during an interview on The View scheduled to air on Friday. “I want to put my family back together … Things are the best they’ve ever been.”

“I feel like I got my Miley back,” he added during Thursday’s taping. “I feel like we’re the daddy and daughter we were before Hannah Montana.”

But the last few months have not been easy for Cyrus.

In October, he and wife Tish issued a joint statement announcing plans to end their 17-year marriage. A few months later, a startling video went viral of the couple’s daughter, Miley, smoking natural herb salvia out of a bong.

Then, in an unguarded interview with GQ, he blamed Hannah Montana for “destroying my family,” and said he felt Miley surrounded herself with people who put her “in a great deal of danger.”

At the time, Billy Ray also told PEOPLE he was doing everything he could to find family unity again, saying in an exclusive statement, “It is very important to me to work on mending my family right now.”

Even now, Cyrus still maintains his family would be in a better place if Miley didn’t become a celebrity.

“Hannah Montana didn’t ruin my family,” he said during the View taping Thursday. “Fame did.”

“Sometimes when you get in this ride,” he said, “you feel like you’re strapped to a rocket.”

Was his threat of divorce used as a wake-up call for Miley?

Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything in the first place…..

Billy Ray Cyrus is apologizing for his recent GQ interview where he said that Hannah Montana destroyed his family and compared his daughter, Miley Cyrus, to Anna Nicole Smith.

The 49-year-old singer spoke to People where he apologized for the explosive interview.

“It is very important to me to work on mending my family right now. My family is the most important thing I have, and we are working together to make sure our future is stronger and healthier,” Billy Ray continued. “It is all a learning process, and we thank everyone for their support and respect of our privacy as we sort through very important family issues.”

Well…at least he got to vent to the magazine about how he really felt…best of luck of working on their issues.

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Just a few hours after having breakfast with her daughter Miley, Tish Cyrus joined her soon-to-be-ex-husband Billy Ray Cyrus in Calabasas at the Hipic Center. These pics were taken also just a few hours after his candid GQ interview was released. Awkward!

Billy Ray Cyrus is breaking his silence on Miley Cyrus, their relationship and how he’s “scared for her”. In a long interview with GQ Magazine, Billy Ray opens up about how Hannah Montana ruined his family, and how he feels used by Miley’s “handlers”. It’s a very interesting and very sad article. I’ve got some snippets here, but the entire article is worth reading here.

“For the record,” he abruptly announces, “to set it straight, I want to tell you: I’ve never made a dime off of Miley. You got a lot of people have made percentages off of her. I’m proud to say to this day I’ve never made one commissioned dollar, or dime, off of my daughter.” He knows that people often assume he is Miley’s manager, perhaps because of the dual father-manager role he plays on Hannah Montana, but that is something he has never been. And now that he has raised the subject, it seems there are a few other things he’d like to mention. “See,” he begins, “I’ve not been able to have a voice.” He explains how, with each major or minor PR uproar in recent years, he has been expected to sail in and smooth everything over. He clearly has regrets.

“Every time something happened in Miley’s career, every time the train went off the track, if you will—Vanity Fair,2 pole-dancing,3 whatever scandal it was—her people, or as they say in today’s news, her handlers, every time they’d put me… ‘Somebody’s shooting at Miley! Put the old man up there!’ Well, I took it, because I’m her daddy, and that’s what daddies do. ‘Okay, nail me to the cross, I’ll take it….’ ”

When he heard about her upcoming eighteenth-birthday party, he decided he wasn’t going to play that role anymore.

“You know why I didn’t go? Because they were having it in a bar. It was wrong. It was for 21 years old and up. Once again all them people, they all wanted me to fly out so that then when all the bad press came they could say, ‘Daddy endorsed this stuff….’ I started realizing I’m being used. If I would have went out there I would have been right in the middle of all this stuff that’s going on right now with the bong. They’d be hanging it on my ass. I had the common sense… I said, ‘This whole thing’s falling apart up there and they just want to blame all of this stuff on you again.’ I’m staying out of it.”

Because you felt you were just expected always to say everything’s okay?

“That’s right. And it’s not okay.”

Continue Reading…there’s much more! (more…)

Apparently, Billy Ray Cyrus’ feelings are hurt after it was uncovered that his daughter, now 18, was toking on a bong for her birthday.

He took to Twitter to vent, with the message above.

Hey, you can only do so much with your kids, then they grow up and go their own way. While I’m sure he’s disappointed, I’m thinking that this won’t be the most scandalous thing she does now that she’s an adult.

What do you think?

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