Billy Ray Cyrus and the pangs of fatherhood

Billy Ray Cyrus is one heck of a dad, though I suppose that Miley would have been fine without his help. Billy Ray took 16-year-old daughter Miley to get her nose pierced.

“She said, ‘Daddy would you take me to get my nose pierced?’ I said, ‘Did you ask your mamma?’ and she said, ‘Mamma said I can do it if you would take me.’

“We went to a little place in studio city. I felt kind of nervous.”

Miley’s dating (ahem, with a few older men including recent ex Justin Gaston and new love Steve Rushton) was also troublesome for Billy.

“You probably heard the song I wrote, ‘Ready, Set, Don’t Go,’” Billy Ray told Larry King.

“It’s about that moment in a daddy’s life that you realize your little girl has grown up. It’s time for her to make her own decisions.”