Billy Ray Cyrus

Hearing Billy Ray Cyrus—he of the signature mullet hairdo and gentle Kentucky twang—spout medical terms like myocardial infarction may surprise some of his country music fans. "I have to use a lot of big doctor words that are not really in my vocabulary," says the singer turned actor of his role on the drama Doc (Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on PAX TV). But vocab is the least of it. "Touring is like a cakewalk compared to what I am doing on this set," he says, citing 12-hour workdays as another challenge. Still, Cyrus, 39, insists that playing Clint Cassidy, a good-hearted backwoods doctor from Montana who moves to New York City for his girlfriend and to work for a callous HMO, isn't all that much of a stretch. "Music and acting do have similarities," he says. "A scene has a rhythm just like a song does. You just have to find it." The busy crooner somehow found time to write and record a new album, Southern Rain, and to squeeze in concert dates between shoots. And when he does hit the stage he always ends with his best-known hit, the platinum single "Achy Breaky Heart." "It still gives that same adrenaline rush and chaos it did nine years ago," says Cyrus. "I will never get tired of that feeling. That's the fun part."