Billy Ray Cyrus appeared on the Today Show on Tuesday morning to promote his NBC Show “Nashville Star”. He talked to anchor Meredith Vieira about the pictures that appeared in the June Issue of Vanity Fair of his 15 year old daughter Miley Cyrus that appears to be topless covered with only a blanket. The photos were taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. Miley stars in Disney’s “Hannah Montana”.

“I didn’t know they were going to strip her down and wrap her in a blanket,” Cyrus, told the anchorwoman. “I was surprised when I saw it… but, hey, that’s life. Stuff happens.” When asked had he complained about the pictures being published his response was no that he didn’t and he goes on to explain why he didn’t. Cyrus said, “Cause my Daddy always said, The more you stomp in poop, the more it stinks.”

“My mind also went back to 1992,” Cyrus told Vieira. “I had the number-one album on Billboard Top 200 for 17 weeks in a row. And with that positive thing going on, there was also that double-edged thing of a reaction. And I remember Kris Kristofferson stopped me backstage at one of my shows and said, ‘Listen, hoss, always remember: The turkey with the longest neck’s always going to be the one everyone’s shootin’ at.’

He says a few days later he and Miley went for a little walk and he told her what Kris had said. He then told her, “It’s just one of those things. You just gotta kind of stand back and let it run its course.”

Cyrus said, “I had just finished a movie down in Florida. I flew in because Annie had specifically asked that I come in and do a shot with Miley. I had worked with her before. She’s a great lady. She is a good person, a great photographer. I was scheduled to be in Washington State the next day to play for the troops returning to Iraq and then the next day in Anchorage Alaska.”  He left after his shoot so he wasn’t there when they took the picture of Miley.

When asked about the photo taken of him with his daughter, he laughed and said he is sorry if anyone was offended by it but to him it was just a picture of a Daddy that loves his daughter a whole lot.

In wrapping up the interview Cyrus says if a Daddy hasn’t hugged his daughter recently then he recommends he does.

You can go here to see a video of the interview here.

Jan Barrett

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