Miley Cyrus reveals lessons godmother Dolly Parton taught her before her death: ‘She was always right’
Miley Cyrus reveals lessons godmother Dolly Parton taught her before her death: ‘She was always right’
Daysia TolentinoThu, September 17, 2026 at 7:00 PM UTC
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Miley Cyrus; Dolly PartonCredit: Emma McIntyre/Getty; Jason Kempin/GettyKey Points -
Miley Cyrus revealed some of the lessons she learned from her late godmother Dolly Parton.
Parton died at the age of 80 on Aug. 25.
Cyrus shared that Parton taught her that “you can have a persona and still be who you are.”
Miley Cyrus is looking back at her bond with her late godmother, Dolly Parton.
As she prepares to release her 10th studio album Bass Persuades, Cyrus is opening up about what wisdom Parton imparted on her before her death. Although the two singers approached the music industry differently, the 33-year-old said that their differences helped her learn.
“Even though we are so different, that’s what made us so perfect for each other...and she knew this, and I know this,” Cyrus told Zane Lowe in an interview published Thursday.
After spending nearly her whole life in the spotlight, Cyrus said that Parton taught her the value of crafting a persona separate from her personal life, which is a lesson that went back to her Hannah Montana days. She noted that the “I Will Always Love You” artist was known as both larger-than-life and authentically down-to-earth.
“So much of my life was about persona,” she said. “And I think a way that I could look at that as, ‘You can have a persona and still be who you are,’ is because I had Dolly.”
While Cyrus took a page out of Parton’s book when it came to persona, she admitted that the two disagreed on how much emotion to share during performances.
“One of the things we talked about was in my performances, I always cry,” she recalled. “I can’t help it. ‘End of the World,’ I start crying, and she watched me on [My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David] Letterman and was like, ‘What are you crying about?’”
Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus onstage during the 61st Annual GRAMMY AwardsCredit: Kevin Winter/Getty
Parton believed “music is escapism” and that Cyrus should maintain a level of professionalism by keeping herself together. Regardless of their different opinions about this, Parton accepted Cyrus’ idiosyncracies.
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“I was like, ‘I know, but this is like who I am,’” the Hannah Montana alum said. “And she loved me for it.”
Parton died at the age of 80 on Aug. 25 following a brief battle with cancer. Cyrus paid tribute to her late godmother in a social media post the following day.
“The feeling of losing my Aunt Dolly is beyond what feels right to share,” Cyrus captioned an Instagram statement on Aug. 26. “Our most sacred moments were private, and they’ll stay there behind the stage, beneath the glamour & between our hearts.”
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And in the wake of her death, Cyrus said that she has been holding her mentors close, including Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood.
“I know that so many — not just Dolly, which is a unique [relationship], you know, that’s family — but so many of my really stabilizing peers that I have in my life, you know, they’re generations before me,” she said. “And they’ve laid down brick by brick the road that I travel now. And they aren’t always gonna be here for me to call them and say, ‘What do I do now?’ which I always did with Dolly. And she was always right.”
Watch the full interview between Miley Cyrus and Zane Lowe below. Bass Persuades comes out on Sept. 18.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
