Who Is Miley Cyrus' Brother, Trace?

At this point, it's safe to say that the Cyrus family is a full-on pop culture dynasty. First, Billy Ray Cyrus broke into the country scene in the 1990s with his hit "Achy Breaky Heart." In the 2000s, he reinvented himself as a Disney Channel sitcom dad, playing the father of his real-life daughter Miley Cyrus's character on "Hannah Montana." There's also Miley's sister, Noah Cyrus, who makes music all her own, and her sister, Brandi Cyrus, hosts a podcast with their mom, Tish Cyrus-Purcell.

And then there's Trace Cyrus, Miley's half-brother. Trace's father was Baxter Neal Helson, Tish's first husband, though he was adopted by Billy Ray when he was very young. Trace has his own career in entertainment thanks to a band that blew up right around when "Hannah Montana" became the most popular show for kids in the country.

Unfortunately, being part of a famous family doesn't just mean that your successes boost each other. It also means living under a microscope so that people are aware of your shortcomings, too. There are plenty of tragic details about the Cyrus family, and they don't just concern Miley herself, or the ongoing feud between the now-divorced Tish and Billy Ray. Trace has had his own problems, sparking several controversies through his occasionally-provocative social media presence. Read on to learn more about Trace, Miley Cyrus' brother.

Miley Cyrus has a jaw-dropping number of tattoos, but her love of tattoos is nothing compared to her brother, Trace Cyrus. In addition to a few face tats, the singer's entire body is covered from the neck down. He sports intricate, elaborate designs from his chest to his ankles.

When Trace's music career first took off, his band would've comfortably been called "scene," and his long, flatironed hair and detailed tattoos helped him blend in with the Warped Tour crowd. Still, even for a scene kid, Trace had a lot of tattoos. A reporter from TMF brought them up in a 2009 interview, and a young Trace explained, "I just got stuff that meant stuff to me, basically, you know?" Many tattoos, he noted, were in honor of his family.

By 2018, Trace was well on his way to covering his entire body. He reflected on the growing popularity of face tattoos in an Instagram post that year, noting that he's surprised to see people with face tattoos who don't have the same level of body work that he does. "Almost 10 years ago when I started tattooing my face, no artist would have even touched my face if my body wasn't already covered in tatts," he wrote. "It's so crazy to me seeing these kids start out with face, neck, and hand tattoos before getting any real work done... For me this is a lifestyle that I'm 100% committed to the fullest."

In the late 2000s, Trace Cyrus' band, Metro Station, hit it big. They started out posting songs on Myspace, which quickly got them noticed. "We were spotted by Columbia Records," bandmate Mason Musso told TMF. "An intern there found our song 'Kelsey' through Myspace and contacted a label A&R representative." Their careers took off, and their song "Shake It" was a bona fide hit. 

At first, Cyrus tried not to publicize his familial connections to the music industry. "I wanted to see how long we could go without anybody knowing. It's not like I didn't want to be associated with that, but I didn't want to be put in a genre where I had to be 'Approved for mothers and 12-year-olds,'" he told the Los Angeles Times. "I want to be myself."

It's true; Metro Station's lyrics were more adult than the music his sister was making, putting Cyrus on a different path than the Disney-approved one the rest of his family was going down. Cyrus left high school to tour with the band, and he soon found himself struggling. Speaking with Alternative Press in 2020, he reflected, "We were just so wild and reckless, and we literally lived it up to the fullest ... We were, you know, 17, 18 years old, given all this money from a record label and literally just given the opportunity to drop out of high school and go party. It was weird."

From very early on in his career, Trace Cyrus downplayed the effect of his family's fame on his career. He even enlisted Miley Cyrus to back him up in a 2008 interview with the Los Angeles Times, trotting out his superstar sister to talk about how he'd done it by himself. "As you can see by going to his show or seeing a photo, we're very different. Trace's success has nothing to do with the family," she insisted. "He worked hard all on his own."

Whether you believe him or not, that's a note that Trace has repeatedly hit in interviews in the almost two decades since Metro Station took off. In fact, he claimed on Instagram that his famous family may have even held him back. "I love my family so much but I think I'd be much more successful if I wasn't part of a famous family," he said, insisting that his recognizable last name made people doubt his talent and assume he'd only gotten in the room thanks to his industry connections.

Nevertheless, Trace's mother, Tish Cyrus-Purcell, insists her son is grateful. In 2024, she appeared on Kate Hudson's podcast "Sibling Revelry" (via People), and she said her kids understand that they didn't have to follow Miley's path. Tish revealed, "He really just told me the other day ... 'I've never been jealous of Miley. I've always been grateful for the opportunities I get because of her.'"

After "Shake It" was a certified hit, Metro Station struggled to follow that early success with a second smash. At the same time, Trace Cyrus and bandmate Mason Musso found themselves partying too hard, and in 2010 they decided to step away from the project for several years in order to sort out their personal lives and pursue solo projects.

Several years later, Musso reached out to Cyrus and they decided to record together again. This led to a 2015 EP called "Gold." Cyrus told A Music Blog Yea that the EP's lyrics were much more mature than their previous work, revealing that the album was about the struggles he'd been going through since he and his friend last called themselves Metro Station. "It was dealing with my struggle with drug addiction, alcoholism, finding the right girl in my life, and my search to be happy," he said. "It's about having all of this money and riches, but at the end of the day, it's not enough to make me happy."

A few years after that, they went dark again, re-emerging in 2019 and releasing new music in 2020. Cyrus told Alternative Press that he was once again devoted to the band, noting that he regretted his ego getting in the way of the band's early success. "But I really have no regrets," he said. "All I know is it's like 12 years later or something, and somehow I've still had no other job than Metro Station, which blows my mind."

Though Trace Cyrus has repeatedly tried to distance himself from his sister's Disney Channel fame, the singer was connected to that same universe of stars in more ways than one. Beginning in 2010, he was in a long-term, on-again, off-again relationship with Brenda Song.

Though the "Suite Life of Zack and Cody" star would date the "Seventeen Forever" singer for many years, the relationship started out strong right out of the gate. In 2011, Cyrus announced on X, "I am very excited to say, last week I asked my girlfriend Brenda Song to marry me and she said YES! We are both very excited to be engaged! Song's "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana" co-star Miley Cyrus replied to her brother's tweet, writing, "can't wait for Brenda to be a Cyrus. Couldn't be more excited about my "sister in law to be," yay."

Unfortunately, they broke off the engagement the following year. They would get back together and break up several times in the ensuing years, finally going their separate ways for good in 2017. In 2018, Trace released a song called "Brenda." According to J-14, he posted and then deleted an emotional Instagram caption about the breakup, writing, "Her and I have both moved on and I'm extremely happy for her. She inspired me to write countless songs and was such an important part of my life."

Trace Cyrus has been open about his experience with addiction over the years, discussing his struggle with alcoholism at length during several periods where he was sober. In 2020, for example, he posted a long, since-deleted Instagram caption (via PerezHilton) about his effort to live a healthier lifestyle. He shared a before and after comparison of himself over a several-year span, revealing, "At that time in my life my addictions had completely taken control, I was barely eating, & my anxiety was so bad It was a struggle just to leave my house. I look so skinny in the older pic it almost looks photoshopped but I promise it's not." At the time of the post, Cyrus was a month sober. "My energy has come back. I'm sleeping better than I have in years," he wrote. "My anxiety has been fading away. I feel stronger than I ever have before."

In 2024, the "I Hate Society" singer updated his X followers on his sobriety journey. "Never thought I could make it past a year. Tried so many times and failed," he wrote. "But I had finally hit rock bottom and knew I had to make a change." Cyrus had clearly embraced feeling confident while sober at the time of his post.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Though Trace Cyrus's music hasn't been in the spotlight in a while as of this publication, the singer himself makes regular headlines through his controversial social media posts. In 2023, for example, Cyrus took to X to share some thoughts about the burgeoning OnlyFans economy. In what appeared to be a screen-capped Instagram story, Cyrus did what he might've called "expressing concern" and what we might call "slut-shaming." He wrote, "There's so many girls that do OnlyFans that have lost their chance of ever settling down with a good guy with morals ... Any guy who is so desperate to see sexual content they are willing to pay for it is a desperate loser." He concluded, "I just think this independent mindset of not needing a man is extremely toxic and leads to a very lonely future."

His followers, understandably, weren't having it. After a backlash of criticism that pointed out how misogynistic the post sounded, Cyrus posted a video "apology" that didn't, in fact, apologize for anything. "So I basically broke the f***ing internet by saying the most logical statement ever," he complained. "This s***'s vile. It's gross. It's disgusting ... At no other time in human history would what I said would anyone be offended by ... I stand by everything I said. I don't care what anybody thinks."

After he broke up with Brenda Song, Trace Cyrus struck up a relationship with a model named Taylor Lauren Sanders. He announced their engagement in December 2018, writing in a since-deleted Instagram post (via People), "Well... It's official! SHE SAID YES! We're getting married! I will love you FOREVER!!!"

Mere weeks later, however, their relationship made headlines thanks to a scary post that showed up on Cyrus' Instagram Story. He shared a snap of his hand around his fiancée's neck, leading to the post being reported en masse by his followers. The post was taken down, but according to People, he re-shared it and wrote, "F— ALL U JEALOUS GIRLS REPORTING MY PIC OF MY BAE!!!" Instead of acknowledging the appearance of violence, Cyrus went on a rant about how everyone was just envious. "Don't go hating on my girl because she's hot!!" he added. "There was nothing wrong with the picture I had posted."

A year later, their wedding hadn't materialized. In a since-deleted Instagram post (via People), Cyrus revealed that the relationship had ended. He posted a selfie with his sister Miley, writing in the caption, "Some of [you] might already know, but I'm recently single & extremely thankful to have my family around me during this time."

After several relationships in the public eye that burned out, Trace Cyrus took to Instagram in 2023 to share some thoughts about his own dating history. In a since-expired post on his story (via Page Six), Cyrus insisted that a girlfriend from a decade earlier had been trying to get back together. That inspired a rant about how he was the best thing that ever happened to his exes. "I genuinely feel bad for any girl I've been with that has to live with the regret of losing me," Cyrus insisted.

Furthermore, Cyrus went on to slam the new relationships his ex-girlfriends had found themselves in. "Some of them are in new relationships & have had to settle for what I know they find less desirable but they've settled for what they can get," he wrote, concluding, "No girl that lost me has had their life improve by me no longer being a part of it." It's worth noting that, although his ex-girlfriend Brenda Song's first thoughts on Macaulay Culkin aren't what you'd expect, the two are now married with kids, and by all accounts happily. We have to imagine she would take issue with her ex's claim that she'd merely settled.

Billy Ray Cyrus, Trace Cyrus's adoptive father, has gone through a series of highly publicized incidents in the 2020s. In 2022, his divorce from Tish Cyrus-Purcell was finalized; in 2024, he married and quickly divorced a woman who goes by "Firerose," and the messiest moments from their divorce were all over the news. The Cyrus family has been in significant turmoil since the splits, with several members picking sides between their parents.

In 2025, Trace turned to social media to beg his father to get help. He shared a throwback photo of himself as a teenager on stage with his guitar-playing dad, writing in the Instagram caption that he'd idolized the "Old Town Road" singer for his entire life. "You're not healthy Dad & everyone is noticing it," he wrote. He also shared a sobriety update, revealing, "I'm over a year and half clean from alcohol. Guess what? I feel amazing.. I don't know what you're struggling with exactly but I think I have a pretty good idea & I'd love to help you if you would open up and receive the help."

Unfortunately, the message doesn't appear to have gone over well. In a since-deleted follow-up (via the Hollywood Reporter), Trace wrote that Billy Ray had threatened to sue his son. "Dad my message was beyond loving ... You should be ashamed of yourself," he wrote. "I will always love you but I no longer respect you as a man."

Though Trace Cyrus has, at times, tried to distance himself from his famous family, he's always been a big supporter of his sister, Miley Cyrus. It seems that he feels very protective over his younger sibling's impact on the music industry, because in 2025, he took to social media to call out none other than Katy Perry. Perry can't catch a break from TikTok hate about her journey to space, and Trace joined in the mockery in an Instagram Reel. "I first knew Katy Perry ... and her team were lame as f*** when her career was first dying, and they were like, 'Hmm, what can we do? Oh, what worked for Miley? She cut her hair off, and it broke the internet!'" He's referring to the short blonde pixie cut that Miley sported during the "Bangerz" era, which was not unlike the haircut Perry chose for her "Witness" album cycle.

He also credited his sister for starting a trend of working with hip-hop artists like Juicy J. "She started the transition, doing more hip-hop stuff," he said. "'We're gonna get you in with the hottest group, the Migos!'" That would be a reference to Perry's single "Bon appétit," which featured the rappers. "'You're gonna do exactly what the f*** Miley did and blow up!' Guess what, it didn't f***ing work!" The rant didn't go over well with his followers. One commenter wrote simply, "Guess what dude? You sound insane. Congratulations."