Miley Cyrus Recalls Final Talk with Dolly Parton, Saying "She Was Always Right"

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Miley Cyrus is opening up about her last conversation with her godmother Dolly Parton before the legendary singer died last month at age 80.

During a wide-ranging interview with Apple Music ‘s Zane Lowe, Cyrus recently revealed that the last thing she spoke to Parton about was her 10th studio album, Bass Persuades , which releases Friday.

“Dolly has been the first person that when I get a vinyl printed, that’s the first person I send it to since I’ve been making vinyls, and this time around I’m going to send her a vinyl because I always do,” she said. “But the time that we talked, which was the last time we would talk, it was actually me telling her about this record because even though we are so different — that’s what made us so perfect for each other is that, and she knew this and I know this; she is like known for the fake, the hair, the makeup and the show of it. But there’s a part of her that is what everyone gravitates towards, [which] is how real she is and how authentic she is.”

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Cyrus felt she could relate to Parton because of her Hannah Montana alter ego , which played a huge role in launching her career at Disney.

“There was a time in my life — we hit on it with Hannah — [where] so much of my life was about persona,” the “Flowers” singer added. “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. Sometimes I call what I do drag because the way that I present myself is just someone that is so different from the person that feeds the tortoise every morning. But again, that person’s inside of me. I just kind of have her off.”

Cryus continued about other discussions she would have with Parton about her career, “One of the things we talked about was in my performances I always cry, I can’t help it. ‘End of the World,’ I start crying and she watched me on [David] Letterman and was like, ‘What are you crying about?’ Like, that song’s about the world ending and me never seeing my mom again. … She was like, ‘Music is escapism. Let them cry. You need to get through it.’ And I was like, ‘I know, but this is who I am,’ and she loved me for it.”

Lowe quipped that Parton was “probably the only person in the world who could sing ‘I Will Always Love You’ and not weep.”

“I can’t,” Cyrus replied. “I cried singing ‘I Will Always Love You’ with her, but I think she knew at that time that the reason I was crying is the reason that I cry now, which is because so many of my really stabilizing peers that I have in my life [are from] generations before me. And they’ve laid down, brick-by-brick, the road that I travel now. And they aren’t always going to 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,” she added. “It’s like how your mom’s always right, and when you’re a kid, you’re like, what does she know? And then as you get older, you’re like, everything. How? Where did this come from? You’re just a normal person. Why do you know everything? Dolly was just always right about stuff.”

Following the Queen of Country Music’s death in August after a brief battle with cancer , Cyrus took to Instagram to pay tribute to her godmother , whom she’s collaborated with many times over her career.

“The feeling of losing my Aunt Dolly is beyond what feels right to share,” she wrote at the time. “Our most sacred moments were private and they’ll stay there behind the stage, beneath the glamour & between our hearts. What I KNOW is Dolly would want me to feel it, write a song about it, and then continue on and be strong. I have an angel by my side. I always have. One of our last conversations was about music and metamorphosis.”

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_Originally reported by [Hollywood Reporter Music](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-news/miley-cyrus-final-conversation-dolly-parton-1236704716/)._