Billy Ray Cyrus has set the record straight on the issue of Miley’s controversial photo shoot, confirming that he wasn’t there when the photos were taken.

“I wasn’t there when they took the controversial photograph,” Billy Ray told Access Hollywood. “I took my picture with Miley and then had to go catch a flight, so I wasn’t there.”

“Annie had asked if I could be there for one picture, so I rerouted my deal and came into LA, jumped in, took my pictures, said ‘Hello’ to my family and then I was off to go play for the troops.”

A rep for vanity Fair says that Miley’s parents didn’t have photo approval, but were shown the photos right after they were taken and were pleased with them.

“Miley’s parents and/or minders were on the set all day. Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley,” Vanity Fair said in a statement to Access. “In fact, when Bruce Handy (who wrote the article the photos appear with) interviewed Miley, he asked her about the photo and she was very cheerful about it and thought it was perfectly fine.”

Billy Ray for his part says he thought the photo was ‘pretty cool’, saying that with Annie Leibovitz taken them, they were bound to be very artsy, although he didn’t realise they would strip his daughter down and wrap a blanket around her.

Billy Ray discussed the controversy with his daughter, by giving a good old boy analogy of a turkey with the longest neck being the one everyone would shoot at.

Pretty cool Billy Ray.