Recent Reads {Hillbilly Heart}

Hillbilly Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus - This is one of those books that I wouldn't have sought out or even noticed, except that it was on the library's 7-day display and for some reason it caught my eye. I figured it would be interesting to read Billy Ray's side of the controversies that have followed him and his daughter Miley Cyrus. It turned out to be a fairly good read, in which Billy Ray tells about his growing up in a small community in Kentucky and how he got started in music. His story is full of ups and downs, and is told with humor and (I think) honesty. He admits that the song that made him a star, "Achy Breaky Heart", is one that you either love or hate, and shares lyrics to a number of his songs and how he wrote them. My own favorite has always been "Some Gave All" and not surprisingly, that is the one that he calls his favorite and his signature piece. He refers often in the book to his Christian faith, but like the rest of his life, that seems to have gone through many ups and downs over the years. He also talks quite a bit about voices he has heard, and while he says that he doesn't understand that and knows it probably sounds crazy, he is just telling it how it happened. I'm not in any position to be able to judge whether his Christianity is genuine or not, and since he and Miley have made fairly public claims to be Christians in the past, that was one aspect of his biography that I would have liked to know more about. My impression after reading it is that he seems completely sincere in what he believes, but the stock he places in things like hearing voices, fortune-telling, and Native American spiritualism sort of muddy the waters. He does tell how his daughter Miley got started in the entertainment business and the effect on him and the rest of the family; he mentions some of the controversies over her behavior and her relationships, but leaves that rather open-ended. Overall, this was an entertaining read, sort of a rags-to-riches story. Billy Ray presents himself as a pretty ordinary and humble guy, who has wanted to have a stable family and make a positive difference in the world more than anything else, and that's what has driven his ambition to succeed and his belief in his music.

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