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I'm going to use my secret love of country music to tell you why it's so great that Billy Ray Cyrus came through and not only dropped a verse for the remix of Old Town Road but fully embraced it.
Now to do that we have to go ALLLL the way back. No not the 90s, further than that. 80s? Nah even further. All the way back to 1962.
In 1962 there was this kid trying to get started in country. They told him "get the fuck off the stage you nasally voiced bastard" that kid's name was Waylon Jennings.
Fast forward to 1978 Waylon Jennings is the first person in country music to ever sell a million records and is credited with ushering in the sub genre of outlaw country.
Let's skip ahead again to this kid with a mullet & 2 first names. In 1992 Billy Ray Cyrus hops on stage and sings "don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart"
Country music got Billy Ray the fuck out of there. He was kicked off the country charts and moved to the pop charts.
So what happened? Billy Ray has a crossover hit & sells the first million records in Country music since 1983. Billy Ray Cyrus ended the drought for country music.
When Billy Ray Cyrus was kicked off the charts he got a call from a semi-retired Waylon Jennings who essentially told Billy "fuck them, do your thing" and he did.
Country starts to become more pop in an attempt to copy the style that went platinum until we get to the point where Nelly is a country star and country just starts stealing elements from hip hop.
Then Lil Nas X gets pulled off the country charts. Billy Ray does what Waylon did before him and reaches out to the next generation. Except he goes one further and hops on the song with him.
