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I was driving with my mother in the wilds of New Jersey over the holidays (and by that I mean Bergen County), when we saw a bumper sticker of Trump with a rainbow clown wig on, and the caption read, “Elect a clown, expect a circus.” I laughed at the time, though now I’m feeling like it’s disrespectful to well-run circuses. But I suppose, “Elect a dumb con man, expect a low production value sh-tshow in which nothing is rehearsed or checked for quality and none of the bills get paid,” is a bit unwieldy for a bumper sticker. My point is, if you think even a fraction of Trump’s tech bro-funded inaugural committee millions went to ensuring technical difficulties were resolved for the inaugural balls, especially after Carrie Underwood’s performance earlier in the day, you’d be as mistaken as an acrobat missing their partner’s hands. For when it came time for Billy Ray Cyrus to don his finest cowboy hat and hit the stage at Monday night’s Liberty Ball, the only thing Billy Ray had liberty from was any form of accompaniment.
Few people are singing the praises of Billy Ray Cyrus’ performance at the Liberty Ball celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration — and the singer has blamed the bizarre set on technical issues.
On Tuesday, Cyrus told People that he “wouldn’t have missed the honor of playing this event whether my microphone, guitar and monitors worked or not.”
“I was there because President Donald J. Trump invited me,” he said.
During his Monday night performance, the 63-year-old Cyrus strummed his guitar and gravelly sang the lyrics to “Old Town Road,” his 2019 collaboration with Lil Nas X, while the song’s music video was shown behind him.
After the video ended, he continued playing “Old Town Road” on his guitar while whistling before attempting to sing the song a cappella.
“If you encourage me, I’ll keep going,” Cyrus said to the audience. “They told me to kill as much time as possible.”
Then, his guitar cut out as he tried to go into his 1992 hit, “Achy Breaky Heart.”
“Is my guitar still on? I think they cut me off. Is my guitar on, guys?” he called out to the tech crew.
“Is anybody awake?” he continued. “Where’s everybody at? Is anybody back there? Can somebody turn my guitar back on?”
Shortly after, two people from the tech crew came onstage to help Cyrus with his guitar, but nothing worked. After a few more minutes, he resorted to performing a monotone, a cappella version of “Achy Breaky Heart” before finally exiting the stage.
As you might expect, Cyrus’ performance was mocked by some on social media, with one person even describing it as “the perfect metaphor for the next 4 years.”
Still, Cyrus said that he had “a ball at the Liberty Ball” in his interview with People.
“I’ve learned through all these years when the producer says, ‘You’re on,’ you go entertain the folks even if the equipment goes to hell,” he told the outlet. “I was there for the people and we had a blast. That’s called rock ‘n’ roll!”
“They told me to kill as much time as possible.” Well, something certainly died. Friends, deplorables, countrymen, there is nothing quite like hearing Billy Ray Cyrus perform “Achy Breaky Heart” a cappella. May the next and only time it ever happens again be for an audience solely of those just pardoned for Jan. 6, if you catch my meaning. Still, I encourage you to watch the clip as everything goes wrong. The electric guitar crapping out was an especially nice touch, as if the instrument itself was saying, “I’m out! I didn’t sign up for this!” Anyone remember the classic Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Amuck, where the unseen animator messes with Daffy through the whole episode? And there’s the sequence where Daffy has to beg for his sound to be restored? Well, he happens to be playing a guitar at that moment (with a cowboy hat on!), and lord love a duck, if Billy Ray wasn’t the spittin’ image of Daffy strumming the guitar with nary a sound emitting forth. Whatever embarrassment you may have suffered, Mr. Cyrus, please know the gaffe made the day of this Looney Tunes lover’s heart. My achy breaky heart (achin’ and breakin’ over the new regime).
photos credit: Getty and Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon