Billy Ray Cyrus says he 'almost died' after a battle with sepsis: 'I had a miracle'
Billy Ray Cyrus says he 'almost died' after a battle with sepsis: 'I had a miracle'
Leigh BlickleyWed, June 10, 2026 at 4:30 PM UTC
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Billy Ray Cyrus in 2025Credit: Ben Montgomery/GettyKey Points -
Billy Ray Cyrus shares he "almost died" after a battle with sepsis.
The country singer said he experienced "a miracle" recovery.
Cyrus is set to release his first album in 14 years, The Hill.
Billy Ray Cyrus is detailing a near-fatal bout of sepsis he faced in 2024.
The country singer, 64, opened up about his battle with the condition in a new cover story with PEOPLE released on Wednesday.
"I got really sick and almost died," he told PEOPLE. "And as I was trying to stay alive, at times they sent me home from the hospital, and I'd be there with [my dog] Tommy Jack. But my body was blowing up. And there was a toxicity of some type of whatever. And it would have erupted, I would have died."
Cyrus said that he had "a prayer answered" after kneeling down on a particular "prayer rock" he found, which he would visit every day, morning and night.
"I would go put my knee on there and say, 'God, please. I need a miracle. I need a miracle.' Tommy Jack would be sitting there with me going, 'He needs a miracle. He needs a miracle,'" Cyrus said. "Lo and behold, they were going to do one last surgery. I got to the hospital, they said, 'Mr. Cyrus, get your [clothes]. It's gone.' It healed. I had a miracle."
He shared, "Love, hope, music, joy, things that I'd forgotten, really, exactly maybe what they felt like, and I go, 'Oh. Even to dream again.'"
Cyrus experienced another health battle following the sepsis: a vocal paralysis diagnosis that left him physically unable to sing. He once again leaned on prayer to pull him through.
"I've been stricken with a disease and I have no voice. I can't talk," he recalled to PEOPLE. "I start believing, once I had the first miracle, I said, 'Cyrus, you can't talk or sing now, but believe you can. Believe you can.'"
To heal, Cyrus started "leaning into" playing his daughter Noah Cyrus' 2025 song, "Don't Put It All On Me," which his son Braison had written.
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"I just love it so much," he said of the tune. "I do credit that particular song with saving me. It's part of it, for sure."
Billy Ray also said Braison's son, Bear, 5, gave him some perspective when he was trying to recover.
"In this very broken moment of my life, my little grandson Bear looked at me and said, 'Try again.' And up until that moment, he had never spoken to me at all. I wasn't even sure if he knew my name," Billy Ray told PEOPLE. "In that moment I thought, 'He's telling you something.' Is it about love? Music? Somehow, I got to try again at both. So I'm learning to try again."
Elizabeth Hurley and Billy Ray Cyrus in June 2026Credit: Hoda Davaine/Getty
Billy Ray is trying a lot of things again, including love with Elizabeth Hurley and reconciling with some of his children following a brief fallout. (He shares three biological children with his ex-wife Tish Cyrus — Braison, Noah, and Miley Cyrus — and adopted Tish's two children from a previous marriage — Trace Cyrus and Brandi Cyrus; he also shares son Christopher Cody with ex-girlfriend Kristin Luckey.)
Although he says he's "never going to be parent of the year," the "On Our Way Along" crooner is confident the Cyrus clan "is going back to our roots as a family."
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"Life is a series of adjustments, and I think my family always knew that. We've all been through a lot, and we've seen a lot. Whatever happened is in the rearview mirror," he said. "The past is over and done. The future is what we have, and we got to look forward."
Billy Ray's first album in 14 years, The Hill, is out on June 16.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
