Achy Breaky Performance
Billy Ray Does a Number
During the Liberty Ball inauguration celebration for the second Donald J. Trump presidency, Billy Ray Cyrus butchered “Old Town Road,” a song originally made famous by Lil Naz X, an openly gay Black man.
That is a doozy of a sentence.
Cyrus is completely within his right to sing this song, as he was instrumental in its chart dominance. His additional verse was part of the strategy that kept the song at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 weeks in 2019. 1
However, the fact that Cryus sang this song to this group of racist, homophobic and transphobic people (or at least people who don’t see those issues as deal breakers) is as wrong as the performance was bad.
And the performance was bad. Like one of the worst I’ve ever seen. But I digress.
Lil Naz X sought out Cryus to provide country bona fide for one version of his smash hit. He might have reached out to Cryus in part because, at the height of his achy breaky stardom, no one thought Cryus was all that country. Two people dismissed by the country music establishment came together to dominate the summer of 2019 — without much regard to what Country Radio™ had to say.
Lil Naz X became the first openly gay Black person to win a CMA. He went on to win two GRAMMY Awards for “Old Town Road” alongside Cyrus. It’s almost like Lil Naz X brought an aging country radio star along for another touch of fame — or it’s exactly like that.
And now, Cyrus is using this song to entertain Trump supporters. These are the same people who erupted into applause when the President said that the government would only recognize two genders. These are the same people who want to ignore race. They want to ignore science, history and the Constitution.
They also seem able to ignore the fact that this song was developed, promoted and made famous by a gay Black man. Like so many in the country music space, they likely dismissed Lil Naz X as a joke, someone not worthy of country airwaves (which at the time were dominated by tractor rap and other hip-hop and trap-infused music). But sure, now they will sing along with Cyrus as he tromps across the stage screaming.
At its best, country music tells a story about those who do not get their story told. At its worst, it’s music appropriated for the financial and social benefit of those who can take advantage of those whose stories aren’t told.
This craziness is telling of where cultural expression is heading in the next few years. We will see more ignorance of where our art comes from and who really makes it. And how taking over this voice diminishes the value of the expression and hurts those who expressed it first.
Again, I’m drawn to the Bertolt Brecht quote about dark times and the fact we will keep singing. It will just be songs about the darkness.
I’d highly recommend reading Old Town Road by Chris Molanphy to better understand the impact this song and approach had on the industry and how the chart system works (or doesn’t, depending on your perspective). The book also explores how Little Naz X’s Blackness and sexuality played into the presentation of this song on country radio.