Billy Ray Cyrus almost didn’t survive a bout with sepsis a couple of years ago.
Obviously, the medical condition has gotten a lot of attention in the past couple of months after it took the life of NASCAR driver Kyle Busch. The 41-year-old’s sepsis was caused by severe pneumonia, and the NASCAR legend ultimately and tragically died because of the complications.
It sounds like Billy Ray Cyrus almost had the exact same thing happen to him in 2024.
The “Achy Breaky Heart” singer was diagnosed with vocal paralysis in 2024. Thanks to an interview with People, we now know that was brought on by a serious battle with sepsis (it’s not exactly clear what caused it, but Cyrus mentions something going wrong with his leg) that kept him hospitalized and nearly led to his death. If you are wondering what sepsis is, it’s basically the extreme reaction that the body can have to untreated, severe infection.
With treatment, patients have a better chance of survival. But if left untreated, it can and often is fatal. Even as the country singer was receiving treatment, his own doctors told him to get his “affairs in order” in case he didn’t make it through, and that’s when Billy Ray Cyrus says he turned to constant prayer:
“I got really sick and almost died. As I was trying to stay alive, at times they’d send me home from the hospital… my body was blowing up (and swollen). There was a toxicity of some type of whatever and if it would have erupted, I would have died. In the last moment, I had a prayer answered.
There was a prayer rock, and I started getting on that rock every morning, every day, every sunset, every night. I’d say, ‘God please, I need a miracle. I need a miracle.’ Low and behold, they were going to do one last surgery. I got to the hospital, they said, ‘Mr. Cyrus, it’s gone.’ It healed. That’s a miracle.”
The power of prayer on full display.
Though Billy Ray Cyrus had dodged the life-threatening condition that takes the lives of 350,000 Americans each year, the illness left him without the ability to talk or sing. He slowly worked through that, but more than anything, he was rattled by just how close he was to death’s door:
“I don’t know exactly how it evolved. It was my worst nightmare. Two years before that, my mom had died in that hospital, in the very floor that I was on.”
That had to be a harrowing experience for the singer and his family. Fortunately, Billy Ray Cyrus made it through his bout with sepsis, and eventually also regained his ability to talk and sing.
Now, he has a new outlook on life, and he’s grateful for every day that he has. You can hear the country music singer talk more about the ups and downs of his life in the last decade or so – and his new outlook on everything following his close call with sepsis – in the interview below:
