Remember Billy Ray Cyrus’s God-Awful “Achy Breaky Heart” Remix?

If there is one ultimate guilty pleasure song in country music history, it has to be the 1992 debut single from the mullet-wearing, ’90s country icon, Billy Ray Cyrus. We’re talking about “Achy Breaky Heart.” Originally written in 1990 by Don Von Tress., it was first released in 1991 by the Marcy Brothers with the title “Don’t Tell My Heart,” and then became a debut single for Billy Ray the following year. It was the best-selling country song that year, a crossover smash, and the first country song to go Platinum since Kenny and Dolly’s 1983 duet, “Islands In The Stream.”

Cheesy? Yeah a little bit, but you’re lying if you say you hate it.

And while I don’t know if I would really go as far as to call Billy Ray Cyrus a one hit wonder (he had a handful of top 10 songs), he certainly rode the song until the wheels fell off. He became relevant again with the Disney Channel series, Hannah Montana, starring his daughter, Miley, and then once more for his 2019 remix of the viral hit, “Old Town Road.”

Of course, these days, Billy Ray is more known for his family drama, dating the 60-year-old smokeshow Elizabeth Hurley, and mumbling his way through a 2024 Presidential Inauguration performance.

But what most people don’t know, is that the “Old Town Road” remix wasn’t his first rodeo in the remix world, and it certainly wasn’t the most offensive remix he’s ever participated in. Nope, that title would belong to, “Achy Breaky 2,” the remix of his own hit single with rapper-producer, Buck 22. Released in 2014, it’s quite possible that it’s the single worst song in American history.

Imagine that dude from high school who only wore a wife beater, slugged down Monster Energy drinks and claimed he made “sick beats” in his mom’s basement.  You know the guy, constantly asked you to look him up on MySpace, only to come across the most atrocious rap music you’ve ever heard. That’s “Achy Breaky 2.” And to make matters worse, they somehow got the late great Larry King to open up this music video. Did he know what he was getting into? Did he choose to be apart of maybe the worst remix in the existence of remixes? On top of that, the music video is based around Billy Ray and Buck 22 getting abducted by a bunch of aliens that are dressed like the strippers that work on the bad side of town.

In a conversation with Rolling Stone, Billy Ray said the song came after Miley told him to take some more chances:

“Miley told me recently that she was thinking about my career, and she said, ‘Dad, you ought to do what I do.’ And I thought about that. And I don’t know if she thinks about it, but when she sees what I’ve done, she’ll go, ‘The old man was listening.’”

I don’t think that’s what she meant, Billy Ray…

He went on to say that the song actually came because Buck 22 is Dionne Warwick’s son, and Billy was recording a different song with her:

“Her son, Buck 22, who’s a very talented young man, comes into the studio and says, ‘Sir, would you be opposed if I took a shot at recording ‘Achy Breaky Heart’?’ It just kind of happened. He had this track that I thought was unique and cool that wasn’t copying the exact record. I took it to my southern rock, bluegrass sound that I do and we just made our own sound.

I was there when he came up with it. Everything happened in 24 hours… he had just done everything I asked him to do with his version, like slow it down. I drove to his house and sang the chorus. He got inspired and wrote the verses right there. This was on the night that Miley was on Barbara Walters’s ’10 Most Fascinating People for 2013.’ 

I was singing the lead vocal on “Achy” and looking through the window at Miley, talking to Barbara Walters. At the specific point in the song where I scream “wrecking ball,” I was actually screaming to everybody in the studio, pointing at the TV because there is Miley swinging by on the ball. What’s the chance that my a** is behind the microphone 22 years later singing the same song, having fun behind the microphone and my daughter swings by on Barbara Walters’s “Most Fascinating People”? What else would I yell?”

I guess…

I mean, the sequel is never as good as the original, but DAMN this is an all-time low that somehow snuck under the radar (probably for the best). Watch at your own risk:

Let’s cleanse the palate a little, shall we?

Here’s ol’ Billy Ray in peak form from the MDA Telethon in 1994:

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