Billy Ray Cyrus wanders stage aimlessly after baffling Liberty Inaugural Ball performance: 'Is anybody awake?'

Inauguration Day went pretty off the rails for Billy Ray Cyrus, who was tapped to kickoff President Donald Trump's Inaugural Ball.

During the Monday night show, the country singer battled technical difficulties and a hoarse voice as he performed without a band. The performance, which has been making the rounds on social media, opened with the full music video of "Old Town Road," Cyrus' Grammy-winning collab with Lil Nas X.

As the video played in full on the stage's LED screen — including dialogue breaks — Cyrus appeared to be playing his guitar and singing along, but was not audible over the pre-recorded track. Afterward, he strummed his guitar and whistled the song's tune, prompting the audience to sing along.

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"If you encourage me I'll keep going," Cyrus then told the crowd. "They told me to kill as much time as possible so… Does anybody know the words of achy breaky heart?"

However, when he began to play the song, his guitar was suddenly inaudible. Cyrus called out, "Hey is my guitar still on? I think they cut me off. Is my guitar on? I don't hear my guitar anymore."

When nothing changed he continued, "Check? Is anybody awake? I don't hear it, do y'all hear this? Is anyone back there? Can somebody turn my guitar back on, we're gonna sing a little bit more."

The singer was eventually joined on stage by a crew member, though they were unable to get the guitar reconnected.

Cyrus was not the first star to encounter technical difficulties that day. Fellow country singer Carrie Underwood was forced to perform a cappella during the inauguration ceremony, after Trump took the oath of office and gave his inaugural address. She was set to sing “America the Beautiful" with a music track, but only a snippet of the song's introductory notes played before abruptly cutting off, leaving the American Idol alum standing in front of the whispering crowd. After a moment of silence she said "I’ll just sing it," and performed without music.

Inspired by Underwood, Cyrus eventually decided to go without his guitar.

"I could try it like this," the singer decided. "After what Carrie Underwood did today... Wasn't Carrie Underwood fabulous?"

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He continued, "They had technical difficulties too and in life, when you have technical difficulties, you just gotta keep going. Or as President Trump would say, you gotta fight. How good was it to see our president back in command? President Trump!"

Handing the instrument off to the crew member, Cyrus told the crowd, "What the hell, just snap your fingers."

He then launched into an a cappella version of his 1992 hit "Achy Breaky Heart," singing a verse and chorus before declaring the performance over. "Thank you, good night!"

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At that point, Cyrus took a bow, took off his jacket and scarf, and began to walk off the stage. As the lights were dimmed and he was played off by his song, "Couldn't Been Me," the singer doubled back, and lifted the microphone to his lips, presumably to sing along. The mic, however, has already been cut off.

Putting it down, Cyrus continued wandering the stage, bowing and waving to the crowd. More than once, a crew member came out to direct Cyrus offstage, with one handing him his discarded jacket, but Cyrus did not immediately follow their lead.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives of Cyrus for comment.

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The musician has since posted about the performance on social media, sharing photos of himself onstage and with President Trump to Instagram.

"Honored to kick off the Liberty Ball at the request of our 47th President and Commander-in-Chief," he captioned the post. Alluding to the technical difficulties, he added,  "When you get knocked down, you get back up. You fight and persevere."

Cyrus also posted about the performance a day before it occurred, sharing a photo from the stage with the caption, "Sound check went GREATTT! This house is ready to rock with @realdonaldtrump!"

You can watch Cyrus' full set at the Inaugural Ball above.

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