HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Billy Ray Cyrus says he often felt used whenever his daughter Miley was caught up in the middle of a scandal.
"Every time something happened in Miley's career," he explains in the March issue of GQ, "every time the train went off the track, if you will—Vanity Fair, pole-dancing, whatever scandal it was—her people, or as they say in today's news, her handlers, every time they'd put me... 'Somebody's shooting at Miley! Put the old man up there!' Well, I took it, because I'm her daddy, and that's what daddies do. 'Okay, nail me to the cross, I'll take it....' "
"All those people around, they used me every time," he continues. "It became so obvious that, man, no matter what happens, they're going to put you up there and let you take the bullet."
Billy Ray says he purposely stayed away from his daughter's 18th birthday party in December because it was "wrong" to hold it in a bar. Shortly thereafter, he found out about the infamous video in which Miley was caught smoking the herb salvia from a bong. He immediately contacted her "handlers," who told him the situation was "none of [his] business."
"I'm dealing with somebody that had only known my daughter for possibly four years," he says, "and I'm her daddy. I was pretty damn insulted. And I took that as the ultimate alarm. 'It's none of your business'! None of my business that you're out running around L.A. trying to buy kids' computers and phones because there's something about my daughter...?"
Looking back, Billy Ray admits he should have been more of a parent than a friend to his daughter.
"I should have been a better parent," he says. "I should have said, 'Enough is enough—it's getting dangerous and somebody's going to get hurt.' I should have, but I didn't. Honestly, I didn't know the ball was out of bounds until it was way up in the stands somewhere."
"You know what, there's no doubt I did stuff when I was a teenager that I'm sure could have turned out horribly," he adds. "I've done some stupid crap—I do stupid crap. We all do. But it's different when you sit back and you see it happening to your little girl. I feel like I got to try. It's my daughter. And some of these handlers are perhaps more interested in handling Miley's money than her safety and her career."
Billy Ray says he is still close to his daughter, but admits their communication could be "a lot better."
"I'm scared for her," he reveals. "She's got a lot of people around her that's putting her in a great deal of danger. I know she's 18, but I still feel like as her daddy I'd like to try to help. Take care of her just a little bit, to at least get her out of danger. I want to get her sheltered from the storm. Stop the insanity just for a minute. When you go through what she's been through, it takes a beating on you. And there comes a point where you just got to step back."
In fact, Billy Ray wishes Hannah Montana had never happened.
"The damn show destroyed my family," he says. "And I sit there and go, 'Yeah, you know what? Some gave all.' It is my motto, and guess what? I have to eat that one. I some-gave-all'd it all right. I some-gave-all'd it while everybody else was going to the bank. It's all sad."
"I'd take it back in a second," he adds. "For my family to be here and just be everybody okay, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic. Heck, yeah. I'd erase it all in a second if I could."
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