Billy Ray Cyrus was on The Today Show this morning, and again he spoke up about daughter Miley's controversial Vanity Fair cover shoot. Just last week the country singer likened famed photographer Annie Liebovitz, who snapped the pictures for the magazine, to a paparazzo.Cyrus made his first televised comments about the photo shoot, although the purpose of his Today Show appearance was to promote NBC's Nashville Star. Cyrus told show anchor Meredith Vieira that was not on the set at the time.
"I didn't know they were going to strip her down and wrap her in a blanket," Cyrus said. "I was surprised when I saw [the photo] ... but, hey, that's life. Stuff happens."
Cyrus said he could not prevent the shoot and did not think to complain.
"I didn't have any choice," he said. "I had a show to do, and an obligation, to go to Washington state ... playing for the troops just back from Iraq."
Miley Cyrus later apologized for the photo, where she appeared draped in a sheet on the cover of the magazine. But some people were also disturbed by a picture inside the magazine, showing Miley and her dad in a perhaps amorous pose.
"That's just a daddy who loves his daughter a whole lot," he said.
