Billy Ray Cyrus Compares Lil Nas X to Elvis Presley After ‘Old Town Road’ Success

Lil Nas X quickly rose to superstar status after the release of “Old Town Road,” which includes a version with Billy Ray Cyrus. The 57-year-old was initally hesitant to join Lil Nas X on the song, before he realized how talented the rising star really is.

“When you talk to him you’ll see the minute he walks in the room, he’s electric,” Cyrus shared with PopCulture.com and other media. “He’s got that charisma. I call him Elvis. As a matter of fact, he went to the Waffle House here in Nashville and he bought me an Elvis bobble head. I read on the thing – I know you’re not supposed to read the price, but it said $24.75. And I looked at it when I got it out of the box last night and I thought, man, $24.75. I mean, I set it up on the shelf soon as you came in the house.

“It was straight in the middle of the table all by itself and there’s Elvis and that bobble head,” he added. “That kind of reminded me of, Lil Nas has that charisma. He’s got whatever that is, that special electricity about him, and I’ll tell you, he’s a really great guy and he’s a smart kid.”

When Cyrus first heard “Old Town Road,” he wasn’t sure he had anything to add to make the song better than the original version.

“It’s been really something,” Cyrus conceded. “I know when I heard Lil Nas’s original version for the very first time, I stood up and sang it, and I never even heard it before. There was just something about it that made me feel good. I had read the note that he asked if I would come in and sing it with him, and maybe write a verse. I said, ‘Man, you don’t need me. It’s done. It’s already ahead. There’s nothing I can do to make this any better.’ And he said, and his record company said, ‘We’d like for you to try.’

“I said, ‘I’d be honored to try. I’ll try to bring something different to it,’” he added. “And luckily, I got in there and wrote a couple words and they kind of fit in and ended up singing on it a whole lot more than I ever planned on.”

The success of “Old Town Road” reminds Cyrus of the early days in his career, when one song changed his own life as well.

“It reminds me in some ways of ‘Achy Breaky Heart,’” said Cyrus. “It had that same commonality. It was a bridge and a sound that connected worldwide, and it wasn’t a division. It was a uniter. No matter where you were from in the world, you could sing it. You could sing it in your own language and you could dance to it. And kids loved it and all ages. There was no really divider genre to it. Sometimes you just gotta make music without limitations. That’s what was magic about this song. It had something for everybody.”

Download “Old Town Road” on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage