Billy Ray Cyrus says ‘change is scary’ as he talks love and divorce

Billy Ray Cyrus talks about the virtues of being able to work in a recent interview.

The 64-year- old country singer sat with PEOPLE for their latest issue and spoke about his alcohol addiction and failed marriage with Tish Cyrus.

"I had entered a period where I hadn't worked for a really long time," he tells PEOPLE for this week's cover story. "And then I realized today, I said, ‘Cyrus, you're working now, man. Be careful what you ask for. You said you wanted to get on the ride? Well, here you go.' "

Speaking about his journey to cut down alcohol, the singer added: "I am the most sober person in the world.”

He says now: "I did drink a lot until 1992, and I just quit. After 10 years of failure and being told no, I finally got a record deal, and that inner voice said, ‘This is going to happen, but you have to stop drinking.' So I just stopped."

"Sometimes change is scary, and I'll keep doing the wrong thing for a long time because I'm scared of change," Cyrus the.-added of his divorce to Tish

‘I'm going to do this,' then that's the way it is. No looking back. I think that's maybe sometimes good for everyone—to just let go,” he said: