With a new album, Thin Line, ready to drop on Friday, Sept. 9, Billy Ray Cyrus is preparing for the big day by making a video for the title track.
The behind-the-scenes video, shot in Billy Ray’s home, takes viewers through the creative process for the single and album. Fans get a sneak peek into his home and find out what inspired him along the way, including the story behind a letter he received from Johnny Cash in 1992.
“Johnny Cash wrote me the letter I carry around in the video,” Billy Rays says in the clip. “He wrote it to me in June of 1992. In some ways he wrote it at a time that I was going through the storm of my life. To receive that letter from Johnny Cash—he ends it with ‘Let ’em have it, I’m in your corner.’ Knowing that Johnny Cash was in my corner, quite frankly, that was my rock. It not only was the cornerstone of that time period in my life but in some ways it became the cornerstone of the rock I stand on now.”
Billy Ray wrote his latest single, “Thin Line,” after a discussion about the show he currently stars on, CMT’s Still The King.
“[I wrote] ‘Thin Line’ one day and some folks had asked me to explain Still The King in one sentence,” says Billy Ray. “I said ‘Well, I guess best said it’s a thin line between Elvis and Jesus.’ I go ‘A thin line, man—it’s a thin line between rich and poor, a thin line between a Chevy and a Ford.’ The lines just started coming. I wrote it really quick one day in New York City and it became the title track of the album and the first single.”
Watch the behind-the-scenes video for “Thin Line” and get ready for the album’s release on Sept. 9.