The country singer originally made a clever joke about his daughter Miley’s marijuana habit, though it didn’t make the final version of the song.
When Billy Ray Cyrus first heard Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” he didn’t think there was anything he could add to it. Columbia Records had approached the country singer about adding a verse, but he thought it was already “a hit, and I thought it was done,” Cyrus said in a recent radio interview.
But eventually Cyrus agreed to adding his spin on the track, and wrote a verse in “about 8 to 10 minutes.” The recording company loved what Cyrus had created, but they had one small objection to the original verse—they didn’t like when he mentioned “marijuana.”
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“For some reason I thought it was funny to say, ‘Baby’s got a habit: diamond rings and marijuana,’” Cyrus told Taste of Country Nights host Evan Paul.
Paul immediately started cracking up, causing Cyrus to exclaim, “See, it is funny! That song could’ve done something if they kept that in there.”
Chances are you’ve heard the updated lyric of “Old Town Road,” which has ranked number one on the Hot 100 charts for over 17 weeks now. Unfortunately, the studio heads didn’t think “marijuana” was appropriate to keep in the song. Instead, a producer suggested to Cyrus he change “marijuana” to “Fendi sports bra,” and the lyric stuck.
“She said, ‘What about Fendi sports bra?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know what that is, so it’s probably good,’” Cyrus revealed.
Of course, the joke of “Baby’s got a habit: diamond rings and marijuana” is still pretty great. For anyone unaware, the “baby” in Billy Ray Cyrus’ lyric refers to his daughter Miley, an on-again, off-again marijuana fan. To be fair, Miley’s parents are pretty big fans of marijuana, too. She ousted her parents last year as growing their own cannabis and smoking plenty of it, too.
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When news of their habit spread, Billy Ray Cyrus posted an image of Miley’s mom Tish in front of bags and bags of bud.
Maybe the lyric should’ve been, “Whole family’s got a habit: diamond rings and marijuana.” That would at least be accurate.
