Miley High Club – We love Miley Cyrus and Miley Cyrus loves gays – but then, what would you expect from Dolly Parton’s god-daughter? Here she talks tweeting, twerking and glory holes.
It’s been five years since Miley Cyrus’s breakthrough single See You Again and it’s classic line “Oh, she’s just being Miley”. In that time, precisely what “just being Miley” entails has changed beyond recognition. In her already classic video for current hit We Can’t Stop, the former Hannah Montana star is seen twerking, spanking, writhing in a bathtub, tonguing a female mannequin and generally behaving like a badass. Still nothing could have prepared us for Miley’s utterly sexually demented performance at the VMAs last month. Rubbing her backside around Robin Thicke’s beetlejuice clad groin – the one time children’s television star was later, variously, blamed for the downfall of Western society – and hailed as a feminist icon. Go figure. The song itself is just as provocative: on the bridge, is the 20-year-old singing ‘dancing with Miley’ or ‘dancing with Molly’ – a reference to a slang term for MDMA?
Despite the white-hot mess of the We Can’t Stop performance, Miley Cyrus is no celebrity trainwreck. She’s an incredibly switched on young woman who instinctively knew that this exert piece of pop titillation would get the internet buzzing: the video has now racked up 120m YouTube views and counting. Miley’s also really starting to find her sound. The day before her Attitude interview, she invites a handful of U journalists to hear three more songs from her forthcoming album, and they’re all brilliant: Drive is electronic and edgy, 4×4 is a Pharrell-produced fusion of dance and country, and Wrecking Ball is an enormo-ballad whose chorus hits you like a punch in the gut.
Miley, of course, is also a massive friend of the gays who has spoken out in support of marriage equality – she even has an equal sign tattooed on her ring finger. During our chat, she’s just as much fun as we’d hoped, talking a mile(y) a minute and offering an opinion on everything. Maybe there are times when she seems a little naive, as though she’s still figuring out what “just being Miley” means, but only a fool will underestimate her. Look out for the way she deflects an awkward question towards the end by bringing up someone she knows Attitude will want to talk about: her godmother Dolly Parton.
You’re only 20 but already your gay fans are obsessed with you. Why do you think that is?
Because I’m obsessed with my gay fans! You know, I don’t think people realise how loyal gay fans are: they’re the people who really care about what you’re wearing and where you’re going out and what you’re doing everyday. Look at the careers of real female legends like Cher, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Madonna.. It’s what kept them going.
And your godmother, of course.
Yeah! I mean, nearly everyone in her audience is gay and nearly everyone that works for her is gay. It’s a loyalty thing and I’m already starting to feel that. Literally, if you drive down LA gay heartland West Hollywood right now, you’ll hear We Can’t Stop playing in all the clubs like, 24/7. It’s incredible.
I think your gay fans will really relate to Wrecking Ball, the album’s big ‘I’ve fucked up my relationship’ song.
Thank you! Wrecking Ball is the complete opposite of We Can’t Stop. We Can’t Stop is like Party In The USA: it makes you feel good, it’s a summer anthem, it’s not something that’s meant to be deep. But Wrecking Ball has so much depth, it kind of reminds me of an Adele song. It’s like, here’s someone who’s really hurting and putting that hurt across in a song.
It doesn’t feel depressing or whingey, though.
Yeah, even though the lyrics are kind of depressing, it doesn’t feel that way to listen to because it’s not slow; it’s a big, powerful sounding ballad. I think it could be remixed for the clubs and still sound great – the way they’ve done with Adele’s Rumour Has It.
Do you go out clubbing a lot?
Yeah! Hell yeah! In the states you’re not supposed to drink, but.. whatever.
Don’t you get hassled though?
Once I’m inside the club I’m good: it’s just outside the club that sometimes people can be annoying. But I always go through the back entrance and all that so I don’t even have to deal with it.
What sort of clubs do you go to?
I do love my gay bars and LA is kind of the best for that. There’s a whole street in West Hollywood just dedicated to gay bars, like every single place.
Do you know hard-partying LA gay bar Micky’s?
Yeah, I love Micky’s! And there’s a new place that’s very filthy that you’d probably wanna go to next time you’re in LA. There’s all these holes in the wall and guys go behind the wall and put their bits through them. It’s very fun to go to.
What’s it called?
Oh, I can’t remember! It’s literally called something so funny. It’s called.. I’m gonna have to ask my make up artist after the interview. Believe me, he’ll know! I love it there because people just want me to have fun. They just want me to dance with them – it’s more about dancing there than, like, posing and taking pictures. Also, I love being able to walk up and down this one street and kind of party hop, instead of having to drive from place to place all night.
Is that the downside of living in LA?
LA is nothing like New York or London where you can head to one area and stay there all night. You always have to drive. West Hollywood is the only place where you can actually bar hop. It’s like a little community: they’ve got their own police and own set of laws. I think you can smoke weed on the streets of WeHo, which you can’t do anywhere else in LA. They don’t care, it’s great! It really is the happiest place on earth – everyone’s gay and high!
I saw a dog drinking a latte in WeHo.
No way! One time – this is gonna sound like a joke – I saw a homeless dude using an iPad. I was like, “That’s West Hollywood for you: you still gotta tweet.”
Obviously I have to ask about the We Can’t Stop video. Is that what a Miley party is really like?
Yeah, I wanted it to feel real because right now everything is so gimmicky in the industry. There’s not one girl who stands for just being real and, like, not posey. Half the time I didn’t even realise I was making all these crazy-ass faces, but I didn’t want the video to be full of beauty shots. Obviously it’s kind of exaggerated and there’s a fantasy element, but for me it still feels real. I live in LA with a bunch of freaks so that’s the way it is at a party. Like, the big bitch in the kitchen who’s 8ft tall that I’m spanking, that’s a real friend of mine called Amazon Ashley who works at this crazy club we go to.
Was there pressure from your record label to tone it down?
There was, but I just had to say: “Look, if it fails you won’t ever have to trust me again, but I promise you this isn’t gonna fail. I know what I’m onto with this.”
Did you know people would get it?
I knew young people would. I’m young, I know what’s cool and I know what people wanna see now. The industry is changing. I think this is why Britney is so legendary. She’s one of the last stars who held on to what pop was: so choreographed and perfect. Britney was almost not like a real person in those videos. People want a little more realness now because of things like Twitter. People wanna feel like they’re connected to you a bit more.
With Twitter, though, how do you hold something back for yourself? You have 13 million followers now.
I just don’t answer things that are too personal. For me, Twitter is about connecting with my fans and letting them into my life a little bit, but talking about what I want to talk about. I think you’ve got to keep something back so that people still find you interesting. If this job was about tweeting and singing, everyone could be famous.
Over the last couple of years, you’ve used your huge profile to speak out publicly in support of marriage equality. What made you take that stand?
Because for me, it’s crazy that this is only happening now. It’s 2013, people! I live in a town where it feels like everyone is gay, so it seems like such an old world thing that there are still places where gay people can’t marry. Hopefully by the time I have kids and they’re grown up this will be like my grandma talking about people being segregated by colour. I hope my kids will be like, “What do you mean people couldn’t get married?” Because by then, it will feel like such a foreign, weird thing.
There’s still a way to go, though.
I know, some people still say such fucked up things. I still don’t shop at Urban Outfitters because their CEO gave a lot of money to Rick Santorum, who said that if gay people get married, we may as well let goldfish get married. It’s the most ignorant fucking comment of all time. For me, if you’re gonna be about an issue, you have to be about it 120%. And if that means not shopping at your favourite stores, then so be it.
Do you think Tennessee, where you come from, is close to recognising marriage equality?
I think it will happen quicker down there than other places down south. I know that downtown Nashville is kind of becoming like WeHo. You know, there’s a lot of gay people in Nashville doing hair – the bigger, the better! You gotta accept the challenge; you don’t have to like it, but you gotta accept it.
You’ve been called a lesbian because of your new haircut recently.
I’m like, “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?” That doesn’t hurt my feelings because I don’t think of it as derogatory. It’s a dumb fucking stereotype.
Do derogatory comments still get to you?
You can’t really affect me at this point. I’ve had every bad review. There’s not much you can say that’s gonna hurt my feelings now.
What about the ‘dancing with Molly’ controversy: Did that affect you?
I knew that would happen! It’s like Dolly Parton says: “the more people talk about your record, the better.”
Do you lean on Dolly for advice?
Oh yeah, she’s got the quickest shit. I remember one time I was working with her on this TV show and they asked if she could button her shirt up. She was like, “You knew my tits were as big as a house when you hired me. Why would you bring Dolly Parton here if you were gonna ask her to close her shirt?”
Has she seen the We Can’t Stop video?
I don’t know.. I kind of keep that away from, like, my older family. I’m sure she’d love the teddy bears though, she’d probably want one.
Have you told her what twerking is?
No, I haven’t. I don’t want her to put a hip out!
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