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 anyone 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!”