Why You Don't Hear From Trace Cyrus Anymore
If you were a teen who lived through the mid-aughts, you've probably heard Metro Station's hit single, "Shake It." It's a song clearly born in the MySpace era with all its tattoos and swoopy hair, but as of late, it seems like the band's vocalist/guitarist, Trace Cyrus, has been bumped out of our Top 8. So, where did he go?
Cyrus first burst onto the scene in 2007 with Metro Station's self-titled major label release, and the album's above-mentioned lead single quickly became a hit, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following year. The same year, Miley Cyrus' older half brother lent his vocals to the Disney starlet's single, "Hovering," throttling the band to the height of its commercial success. But it was all downhill from there. Metro Station's second single, "Seventeen Forever," failed to gain the same kind of traction as the first and peaked at a measly No. 42 while fans awaited a follow-up record that seemed like it would never come.
Since then, Trace Cyrus has more or less fallen out of headlines, and he only really ever gets tabloid coverage when he poses alongside his ultra-famous sister or runs his mouth. Here's how the star fell from fame, and how he's gearing up for a major comeback.
Trace Cyrus learned you can't stay 17 forever
Metro Station is a band that wouldn't have been possible without the Disney Channel. According to Alternative Press, Trace Cyrus met his bandmate, Mason Musso, on the set of Hannah Montana. Mason's little brother, Mitchel Musso, co-starred in the series alongside Trace's little sister, Miley. The boys were only around 17 years old when they signed their major label contract, and Trace Cyrus ended up dropping out of high school to tour with the band. However, Metro Station's youth may have been its Achilles heel.
"When we were young, we didn't care. We were just so wild and reckless, and we literally lived it up to the fullest ... It was the downfall to Metro Station at the end of it because it all came crashing down on us," Cyrus told the media outlet in 2020. He added, "We just laugh at these stories and how crazy we were because we had no guidance. We didn't know what we were doing. 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."
There was one voice of reason in the band: Blake Healy. Metro Station's resident adult was about 25 years old when the band hit it big. Claiming Healy had "his head on straight," Cyrus previously told Alternative Press, "If only we would have listened to him."
Nothing like a lawsuit between bandmates
It's hard to tell just how popular Metro Station would be today if they kept up the momentum and properly followed-up their debut album. In an interview with Alternative Press, Trace Cyrus even admitted that he wished they'd put out a second record "closely following the first one," but "egos and different things" ended up getting in the way. Ultimately, this fractured Metro Station at the height of its success, leading to a 2010 breakup.
"When it came down to just me and Mason, there was just a lot of butting heads and none of us were really happy or having fun at life," Cyrus explained to The Morning Call in 2013. "So I decided to go my separate way and do my solo thing."
However, this may not have been purely Cyrus' decision. The war of egos eventually escalated into a lawsuit when Cyrus reportedly announced Metro Station's breakup without permission, and his bandmates wanted him booted in fear that his antics would bankrupt them. According to TMZ, Cyrus was the president of the band's legal entity, Metrostation, Inc. It's a bizarre move to trash a company you run, but Cyrus publicly shamed the band, calling its music "weak" on Twitter (bro, didn't you write it?). The band then tried to oust him from his leading role in retaliation and took the case to court. It's not really clear what happened with that, but they did eventually reunite, so it couldn't have been that bad.
Trace Cyrus found out DIY isn't for everyone
Trace Cyrus' solo project Ashland High never even got close to the same level of fame as Metro Station, but that may have been intentional. Though he released the project's debut track, "French Kiss," in 2010 — the same year Metro Station called it quits — years later, the singer still appeared to be struggling on his own.
In 2013, Cyrus self-released Ashland High's sophomore album, Drugstore Cowboy. It was not available in stores, and he performed the songs with a DJ instead of a live band. This was after he already gave his debut album away for free to try to generate buzz. In an interview with The Morning Call, the star admitted he wasn't getting the "immediate attention" of major label release, and felt a bit unprepared to do things on his own.
"You have to think that with Metro Station, we had another singer. So I really had to learn to sing choruses and it's hard to sing a show totally by yourself when you're used to having two people split up the whole set," Cyrus said. "So it's really been a learning experience for me, and I still feel like I'm learning a lot ... I don't feel I'm ready for an in-store album or anything."
At the time of this writing, Ashland High's website domain has expired, and its Twitter account hasn't been updated since 2017.
Metro Station's comeback fizzled out
Metro Station's breakup turned out to not be full-fledged. According to a report from MTV News, Mason Musso had been continuing the project solo, but it more or less flew under the radar. Seriously, there's almost no information online about the 2013 Musso-led EP Middle of the Night, and Metro Station's website does not appear to exist. The band was itching for a comeback, and that comeback eventually came.
According to Billboard, Cyrus rejoined Metro Station in 2014 to release the EP, Gold, and embark on a co-headlining tour with The Ready Set. "After over four years of being apart, fans — and even myself — thought this would never happen," Cyrus told the outlet. "I'm extremely excited to be making amazing music with Mason as Metro Station again. We started this band together and it only feels right we finish what we started."
A year later, it really felt like the band hit its stride. Metro Station finally released its long-awaited follow-up to its self-titled debut album as a self-released 18-track mixtape called Savior (about eight years too late), and set off on the behemoth summer punk tour, Vans Warped Tour. Unfortunately, the comeback fizzled out. Billboard reports that the band managed to stay together long enough to do a 10-year anniversary tour for its self-titled release, but before the dates kicked off, Metro Station announced that this tour would be its last.
Trace Cyrus split from a Disney star
It seems pretty mind-boggling, but Trace Cyrus was quietly dating Disney Channel star Brenda Song for the better part of a decade. If you don't believe it, just listen to the track he released after they broke up. Not only is it titled "Brenda," but the video's thumbnail is a photo of the couple.
For a long time, Cyrus' relationship with Song was keeping him in the headlines. When the pair got engaged in 2011, Song was at the height of her Disney Channel fame and closing the book on London Tipton. She had portrayed the character throughout all of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and every subsequent spin-off, but was slowly transitioning into adult roles, like her appearance in The Social Network in 2010. Meanwhile, Cyrus was trying to get his solo project off the ground.
According to People, the couple bought a house but called off their engagement less than a year after Cyrus got down on one knee. This was only the beginning of a long saga. J-14 reports that Cyrus and Song appeared to break up and get back together repeatedly throughout the decade — even fielding some awful pregnancy and miscarriage rumors — until they finally broke up for good in 2017. Per a profile in Esquire, it looks like Song ultimately settled down with Macaulay Culkin. The Home Alone star announced they were trying to have a child.
Trace Cyrus tried his best to settle down
There's a reason Trace Cyrus hasn't been touring as much as he did. He made an active choice to settle down with fiancée Taylor Lauren Sanders. According to J-14, the couple announced they were officially dating in February 2018, and it was a little bit of a whirlwind. Us Weekly reports that the pair moved to Las Vegas together that December, and Cyrus proposed the night they got there. It's not surprising that the rocker made the choice to slow down considering he was in the midst of wedding planning.
"When I was younger, that's how it was. It was just 24/7 on the road. Play these shows. Go, go, go. I just really didn't have a moment to breathe," Cyrus told Alternative Press in a January 2020 Q&A. "And now it's just like I want to relax. I want to be with my girl, [and] my dogs. I want to have a life of my own and do Metro Station when it makes sense."
Unfortunately, Cyrus didn't actually get the opportunity to settle down. According to People, the singer revealed that he was newly single on the same day the Alternative Press article was published. In a now-edited Instagram caption, he wrote, "Some of u might already know but I'm recently single & extremely thankful to have my family around me during this time." It's unclear whether they've since gotten back together.
Trace Cyrus keeps most of his music private
Of the heels of Metro Station's second breakup in 2017, Billboard reports that Trace Cyrus relaunched his solo career with the track "Lights Out." Since then, he's released enough songs on YouTube to make a full-length if they were stitched together into one body of work, but that's about it. At the time of this writing, it's been three years, and his channel still has less than 13,000 subscribers.
If it looks like Cyrus' solo project is fizzling out yet again, that's not actually the case. The musician has a ton of songs, you just will probably never hear them. In an interview with Alternative Press, the star admitted that he's always worked hard even if he's not "nearly as successful as [he hopes] to be one day." Most days, he wakes up, smokes weed, and hits the studio. "90% of the songs I make, people are never even going to hear," Cyrus continued. "I don't put out most of my music to the world. And it's just something that I like to do for me."
Honestly, where were those songs in the eight years it took for Metro Station to make a sophomore record? The band could have used them.
He won't use sister Miley Cyrus' fame to get ahead
Trace Cyrus has one of the most famous sisters on the planet. When she's not causing a ruckus by shaking it at awards shows (lest we forget the MTV VMAs twerking incident), Miley Cyrus is advocating for homeless and LGBTQ+ youth and dominating the Billboard charts. This includes 49 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and nine Top 10 hits. Though Metro Station initially went on a massive arena tour with Miley in 2009, Trace refuses to use his sister's fame to get ahead. In a 2012 interview with Fuse, the singer revealed that he recorded a track with Miley called "Shot in the Dark," but opted not to release it despite announcing that it was coming out "very soon" in 2011.
"When I feel like I've had my own success and fame because of my hard work, then I'll [release] the song with Miley, but I'm not trying to use her to get exposure or sell records," he explained. And Trace seems self-aware about his level of success, which is probably a bit difficult when your dad is busy winning Grammy Awards and your sister is, well, Miley Cyrus. On Ashland High's Tumblr account, the star admitted he was brought to tears by a fan's tribute tattoo. "I might not have the most fans or be as successful as a lot of artists," he wrote. "But the fans I do have are some of the most loyal and supportive."
That time Trace Cyrus hit an All Time Low
Trace Cyrus doesn't always cast himself as the most likeable protagonist. The star made headlines in 2009 when he slammed the Jonas Brothers in an interview with Details (via People). He basically called the trio "fake" and lobbed a thinly veiled threat at Joe and Kevin (Nick, apparently, was on his good side). That comes before he talked trash about his own band enough that they sued him. Years later, it doesn't look like he learned his lesson.
During Metro Station's 2015 Warped Tour run, which was supposed to be its comeback, the band made a stop at the Alternative Press Awards. That's where Cyrus decided it was a good idea to slam All Time Low — the award show's hosts and arguably one of the most beloved bands of the modern pop punk scene — on live TV. According to Alternative Press, Cyrus called out the band for allegedly talking "s**t" when he was supposed to be introducing PVRIS and Tyler Carter. He then reportedly had a verbal altercation with All Time Low members Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat backstage, before allegedly threatening to fight them in a now-deleted Instagram post.
The two bands reportedly had some issues with each other in 2009, but we're pretty sure the statute of limitations has passed on that one. Five years later, Cyrus is still bewildered that bands reportedly don't want to take him on tour. At least, he told Alternative Press as much.
Maybe don't yell at your fans, Trace Cyrus
Trace Cyrus really knows how to win fans over. Though nostalgic 20-somethings across the globe still add "Shake It" to feel-good party playlists, the singer seemingly has no problems biting the hands that feed him. In 2019, the star appeared to lash out at his female Instagram followers when concerned fans reported a photo.
According to TMZ, Cyrus posted an Instagram Story of fiancée (or ex-fiancée?) Taylor Lauren Sanders wearing red lingerie while his hand was placed around her throat. Clearly, this whole thing went against Instagram's code of conduct, because the company deleted the post and sent him a note about how it violated their guidelines on nudity and adult content. In response, Cyrus claimed that the fans who reported the post were jealous.
"If you're not happy with your look then f**k do something about it!!! Go to the gym, learn to do your makeup properly, find out about fashions that fit your body type," he wrote in an Instagram Story (via TMZ). " ... So many of u miserable girls out there f**king flagged it so it got taken down!! I believe every woman can be beautiful but JEALOUSLY & lack of confidence in yourselves makes u all look disgusting." That's one way to attract female fans!
Metro Station's third time might just be a charm for Trace Cyrus
Trace Cyrus has undeniably been laying low for the most part in recent years, but that's poised to change. The star is giving Metro Station a third chance. Hey, maybe the third time really is a charm. In a 2019 interview with Alternative Press, the singer confirmed that the MySpace legends were reuniting yet again. So, how'd it come about?
Cyrus admitted that his famed project disbanded for the second time because he was "burnt out" on touring (which is totally understandable) and wanted to "get [his] personal life together." During that time, TikTok and Spotify inspired him enough that he randomly called up Mason Musso and asked him to get into the studio. TikTok isn't MySpace, but it'll do. "I hadn't seen or spoke to Mason in over two years," Cyrus told Alternative Press. "And I just came up to L.A. and, you know, within a few hours we had made a whole new song that we are so excited about that we feel I can make another stamp on the music industry."
Metro Station plans to release new music in 2020. In February 2020, the duo played their first show in nearly three years at Emo Nite LA.