Billy Ray Cyrus using 'Old Town Road' to push for Pete Rose to be in HOF

"Old Town Road" has been dominating the summer music charts, and country music star Billy Ray Cyrus hopes its success will lead to Pete Rose being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Cyrus, who's featured on the Lil Nas X track, spoke about his campaign to get Rose into the Hall of Fame during an appearance on ESPN's "Le Batard & Friends - South Beach Sessions" podcast Tuesday.

"This thing with 'Old Town Road' is just blowing my mind right now," Cyrus said. "I started the whole Pete Rose movement last week. (The song) was 14 weeks at No. 1 then, and I saw this picture of Pete Rose with that one finger up and I go, 'Wow, man. I remember what Pete Rose meant to me and that Tri-state area and Major League Baseball.'"

Toward the end of the interview, Cyrus expressed optimism that the "power of the people" would help get Rose inducted.

"Celebrate the power of the people. It's not about the critics and that now," he said. "As the 'Old Town Road' has proven, the power of the people could be strong, it could be a harness of everybody just saying, 'Hey, this is a good thing. Forgiveness is a good thing. Let's put Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame now. He's 78 years old and he deserves to be in there.'"

Cyrus likely won't get his wish, as Rose was permanently banned from MLB and the Hall of Fame ballot for betting on baseball while he was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds.