Miley Cyrus Drops Last Name, Prompting Dad Billy Ray to Publicly Defend the Change: ‘Family Means More than Ever Now’

Miley Cyrus is making a significant public identity shift, announcing she will now release music solely under her first name. This revelation comes just weeks before the anticipated drop of her tenth studio album, Bass Persuades, and has sent ripples through the entertainment world. The announcement, made on September 1st, was instantly seized upon by media outlets and fans alike, many of whom interpreted it as a pointed gesture towards her father, country music icon Billy Ray Cyrus. The Daily Beast, for instance, ran with the headline "Pop Star Rebukes Dad With Plan to Change Her Famous Name," a framing that suggested a deepening family rift.

However, Billy Ray Cyrus, now 63 and perhaps best known for his 1992 global phenomenon "Achy Breaky Heart," has stepped forward to dispel those rumors. In a heartfelt social media post on X, he revealed that Miley had personally informed him of her decision before it went public. "Family means more than ever now," he wrote. "I always called my little girl Miley. Just … Miley. Just like I always called my little boy Braison. Bet you didn’t know … I was just CYRUS before Achy Breaky Heart came out in 92…. I told Miley yesterday I felt good about her going with her first name. I mentioned Dolly and Cher. Thinking about it more and more … Elvis .. Prince … and so on. It's a natural progression for an iconic superstar legend. And the legend continues! Looking forward to the new album." His reference to these music legends is telling. In an industry where a mononym often signals a level of cultural ubiquity that eclipses a family surname—think Madonna, Beyoncé, or Sting—the elder Cyrus seems to view this not as a rejection, but as a rite of passage for a global icon. For context, Billy Ray himself experienced a similar, albeit less permanent, identity shift when he dropped "Billy Ray" to go by "Cyrus" early in his career, a fact he alluded to in his message.

The new album, Bass Persuades, is slated for release on September 18th via Atlantic Records. This 10-song collection is already generating substantial buzz, particularly for its unexpected collaborations. The tracklist features guest appearances from the experimental art-rock group Model/Actriz and Swedish producer Andrew Wyatt, whose work with Miike Snow has earned him a reputation for genre-defying production. This pairing suggests Cyrus is venturing into more audacious and sonically adventurous territory. In her own announcement, the Grammy-winning artist offered a deeply introspective glimpse into the project's meaning. "Music takes hold of us. We feel it, sing it, sometimes dance to it, let it out and carry on. It is powerful, vulnerable, sweet and strong. Heart full, heartache, every part of life in between. That's what the title means to me," she shared, adding, "Thank you for being a part of making my wildest dreams come true."

To celebrate the album's release, Cyrus will headline two rare performances at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on October 16th and 18th. The venue, a natural amphitheater that has hosted everyone from The Beatles to Billie Eilish, provides a fitting backdrop for an artist who first captured the world's attention as the star of Disney's Hannah Montana—a role that made her a household name before she turned 16. While speculation about tension within the Cyrus family has been a staple of tabloid coverage for over a decade, the two appeared together publicly earlier this year during the show's 20th-anniversary special. In a recent interview with People, Miley reflected on how music has consistently served as their most reliable mode of communication. "It's really the way we communicate," she noted. "Whether it's sending a song we wrote in a text or writing a poem that says how we feel in a way that's authentic to us, it's always been the way we share our feelings." This latest development, then, may not signify an ending, but rather a new chapter in a complex, enduring duet between a father and daughter who have always found their clearest expression through melody and lyrics.