Nashville, TN (Top40 Charts/ Chinook Winds Casino Resort) - 2008 CMT Awards host and multi-platinum recording artist
Billy Ray Cyrus will perform live with hits ''Achy, Breaky Heart,'' ''Ready, Set, Don't Go,'' and ''Could've Been Me'' at Chinook Winds Casino Resort on Friday, June 19, and Saturday, June 20. Both shows are at 8 p.m., tickets are $25 to $40 and go on sale March 19.
Enamored of baseball, Billy Ray Cyrus intended to become another Johnny Bench as he grew up in Flatwoods, Ky. While attending Georgetown College on a baseball scholarship, he bought a guitar and decided immediately that athletics wasn't the proper direction for his life. Instead, he formed a band called Sly Dog with his brother and gave himself a ten-month deadline for finding a place to play. One week prior to that cutoff date, the group went to work as the house band for a club in Ironton, Ohio, where they remained for two years. When a 1984 fire destroyed the bar - and Cyrus' equipment - he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career.
Eventually, he returned to Kentucky and commuted regularly to Nashville in search of a record deal. Grand Ole Opry star Del Reeves got Mercury Records to take a look, and division head Harold Shedd signed him in the summer of 1990. When his first album came out in mid-1992, Cyrus - with his good looks, sculpted body and the infectious ''Achy, Breaky Heart'' - became an instant groundbreaking sensation. Spending five weeks at the top of the country charts, ''Achy, Breaky Heart'' made his debut album, ''Some Gave All,'' a blockbuster success. By the time it fell off the charts, it had sold over nine million copies and spent 17 weeks on the top of the pop charts.
In March 2001, Cyrus hit TV screens in the role of a country doctor moved to Manhattan in the sitcom ''Doc.'' He returned to the music world with 2003's ''Time Flies'' and ''Other Side.'' In 2006, he released ''I Wanna Be Your Joe'' and also appeared on The Disney Channel's ''Hannah Montana,'' starring his real-life daughter Miley.
Ticket prices range from $25 to $40, depending on seat location. For more information, or to obtain tickets, call 1-888-MAIN-ACT (624-6228) or TicketsWest, 1-800-992-TIXX (8499).
Chinook Winds Casino Resort offers 24-hour Las Vegas-style gaming, 18 hole golf course, headline entertainment featuring some of music's most legendary stars, three full service restaurants, secure childcare facility and arcade, and a 227 room ocean front hotel. Chinook Winds Casino Resort is located on the beach in Lincoln City, Oregon and is owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. For more information please visit www.chinookwindscasino.com, call 1-888-CHINOOK (244-6665) or 541-996-5825.
