December 7, 2007
"Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart. I just don't think i't understand!" --Billy Ray Cyrus.
Teen idols are generally not well known in the over-50 crowd. Ask any card-carrying baby boomer to name a current teen star, even one as popular as the Disney Channel's Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana. Few can do it.
However, ask us to remember her Dad, Billy Ray Cyrus of the blockbuster 1992 hit single, "Achy Breaky Heart". Now, that is a different story, but please don't tell Hannah I like her daddy better.
I am not alone. An online blogger wrote this, "I am a 65-year-old woman, and I first watched Hannah Montana because Billy Ray was on there, and that's the only reason I watched. I have been a Billy Ray fan since the early 90's."
Some background may be in order here if you have never seen the show.
Disney has a wildly successful program featuring a normal teenage girl named Miley Stewart, played by Miley Cyrus. Her real-life dad, 1990's country singing star Billy Ray Cyrus, plays her dad. Are you with me so far?
Intriguingly, Miley has a secret life. Miley moved from Tennessee to Malibu where only her family and close friends know that she is really pop singing star Hannah Montana. The series begets teen mania unseen since The Beatles arrived in America, according to writers who were not born yet when the Fab Four crossed the Atlantic.
Yet, there are those among us who have never heard of Hannah despite all the hoopla. My husband, a case in point.
Yesterday evening he asked, "Have you ever heard of some girl called Hannah Mannah, or Hannah something?"
"Yes, that would be Hannah Montana, but that's not her real name. I replied. "Her real name is Miley Cyrus, and she entertained last night at the new Sprint Center in Kansas City. Her dad is Billy Ray Cyrus. Why are you asking?"
"Heard of him. Never heard of her," he said, "but her bus was at our truck stop today."
"What? Oh no, I missed it. I could have taken a picture," I moaned.
"No worries. I have one," he said.
He has a Hannah Montana photo?
Since we live in a small town not far from the interstate highway, it did not take long for Hannah Montana mania to envelop our berg once folks learned that her bus was at the junction. Phone calls flew, and a secretary, Jill, dispatched her boss, John, to take a picture. I guess he was the only one with a camera handy.
In no time at all, my husband had an email picture of a bright, hot pink Hannah Montana bus parked at our truck stop.
Truth is, it was only her bus, so I didn't miss much. She wasn't on it and neither was her dad, the one I really wanted to see.
"Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart. I just don't think i't understand."
