Billy Ray Cyrus Helped With The Best Prank Ever Played On Me

A former coworker reminded me how he got Billy Ray Cyrus to help him play the best prank ever on me in Nashville.

Tuesday was National Radio Day, so the memories of our 'old days in radio,' were all over my Facebook timeline. But the best of all was a reminder from my friend and former boss, Bob Potts, about a prank he played on me while we were in Nashville for a national Country radio seminar. CRS was always a lot of fun, with plenty of celebrities wandering around the convention center and the Opryland Hotel.

Bob and I were at a party in the Jack Daniels Saloon in the Opryland, when a magician started doing some close-up magic. I was sitting on the floor in front of a group of people (because I'm short and it's the only way I could see) and the magician picked me to help him with his trick. He took both my wrists in his hands and started going through his spiel. As he did, he started fiddling with my wristwatch and I knew that the trick was going to be to distract me, so he could remove it. I was determined that I would not let anything pull my attention from my arm. That is, until something unexpected happened.

The magician suddenly said, "Isn't that Billy Ray Cyrus?" I wasn't going to be fooled into looking, and so I kept my eyes forward. Suddenly, a very familiar, very Southern voice said, "Hey! Is that my old friend Cindy?" I glanced behind me and it was Billy Ray Cyrus! Calling me by name! (I'd never met him before) But calling me by name wasn't enough. By this time, the magician had pulled my arms, so I was on my knees, and Billy Ray came over and knelt next to me, with his shoulder firmly against mine. He was saying something about how good the magician was, but I wasn't listening. I was too busy trying to figure out how Billy Ray KNEW MY NAME.

Of course, by then, my watch was gone and tucked neatly into a bag in the magician's pocket. Billy Ray gave me a quick hug and went off to talk with countdown host Bob Kingsley(who's also in the photo). As I made my way through the crowd, I spotted Bob standing near the back, trying to contain his self-satisfied smirk. When I confronted him, he admitted that he had engineered the prank. When Billy Ray strolled up to see what was going on, Bob told him my name and asked him to go over and freak me out. The Achy Breaky one was more than willing to help out, executing the request perfectly. And it worked!

Best. Prank. Ever.