Billy Ray

"What a day for a boy from Flatwoods, Ky.!" Billy Ray Cyrus is practically floating as he steps into a Westwood hotel elevator, chattering at about 100-good-ol'-boy-homilies-a-minute as he recounts what he'd have his guest believe has been the best day anyone could ever have. He may have a persuasive case. "It's not every day I wake up, go to the Shrine Auditorium for the American Music Awards rehearsal and find my seat is right behind the ones for Michael Jackson and Liz (Taylor)!

Michael Jackson won two trophies and his third special award while Michael Bolton, Billy Ray Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Reba McEntire, Patti LaBelle, Garth Brooks and Bobby Brown scored major victories Monday at the 20th annual American Music Awards. Jackson "Dangerous" was voted the favorite pop rock album and "Remember the Time" was the favorite soul-rhythm and blues single. He has won 14 of the awards in competitive categories.

A musician may sell millions of records and be idolized everywhere, but he has never truly "made it" until four little critters with squeaky voices invite him to collaborate on their album. That's why country music superstar Billy Ray Cyrus, whose debut album topped the pop charts for 16 weeks this year, can now rest easy. He has a guest slot on the Chipmunks' country album, "Chipmunks in Low Places," and Cyrus is thrilled.

Billy Ray Smith has been a Charger through bad times and sad times. He has been through times of hope and times of hopelessness. He has seen fans frenzied with faith and he has seen fans cold with apathy. He came to the Chargers as their No. 1 choice in the 1983 draft after a stellar career at Arkansas. That team was oh-so-close to greatness. That was what everyone believed.

Billy Ray Cyrus' "Some Gave All," which has successfully crushed all challengers to pop-album chart supremacy for the last 16 weeks, should rule for the next few weeks. Then it should be dethroned by either the next Garth Brooks album or the new Michael Bolton collection, both due out in less than two weeks. Bobby Brown's heavily hyped "Bobby," which remained at No. 5, still hasn't mounted much of a challenge to Cyrus. Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" is still the No. 1 pop single.

"Taking Billy Ray to Market," by Michael McCall (July 19), is one more piece of evidence supporting the belief that country (and western, lest we forget) is big business. However, this concept is nothing new to those who follow the genre. What is new and rather baffling is the tremendous amount of unfounded criticism that is being leveled at Billy Ray Cyrus and those who are guiding his career. These volleys have come from inside the country music industry as well as from outsiders and, for the most part, amount to little more than sour grapes of an unknown variety.

Seven months ago, the Nashville staff of Mercury Records huddled in a nondescript conference room in the plush Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel to discuss specific plans for new albums scheduled to be released in the first half of 1992. Among the topics of discussion: what to do with Billy Ray Cyrus, an unknown singer from Kentucky who had signed a recording contract with Mercury.

Billy Ray Cyrus' "Some Gave All" keeps getting stronger, racking up its fourth week on top of the Billboard magazine pop chart, confounding all the critics who insist the album is awful. But it does support the relatively new notion that country-music sex symbols can sell records--lots of records. Cyrus may be the most marketable sex symbol ever to hit country music. Wilson Phillips' "Shadows and Light" continues to slip, dropping to No. 6.

If Billy Ray Cyrus really were a country singer, he'd have some achy breaky vocal cords to go with that famously damage-prone heart. As much as Garth Brooks has dipped into pop sources and styles in achieving across-the-board popularity, the catch in his voice and the sudden dips and broad bends in his phrasing are as unmistakably country as his cowboy hat and boots.