When Dolly gives advice, you listen.
Miley Cyrus hit the jackpot when it comes to Godparents, having the country music queen, Dolly Parton, in her corner. Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton are arguably the most iconic godmother/goddaughter duo out there. Both iconic performers who share an incredibly close bond. Parton has been a guiding light for Cyrus throughout her career, advising her on how to climb the ropes of the music industry and guiding her through the trials and tribulations of fame.
While I can only imagine all of the great advice that Parton has given Cyrus over the years, just as she does with other women coming up in country music, during a recent event, Miley Cyrus shared one phrase that has really stuck with her throughout the years. During an intimate screening of her visual album, Something Beautiful, in New York City, she did a Q&A session after the showing, opening up about the advice Parton gave her.
“When Dolly told me, ‘You do you, and I’ll do me. And together we’ll be us.’ And now I just say that everybody, because now I’m like, ‘You do you and I’ll do me. And we’ll do us, and that will be so cute. But like I can’t be giving you and you can’t be giving me.'”
Miley admitted that when her godmother gave her this advice, there might have been little shade in there, trying to check Cyrus. But it was still all in that Southern tone that never comes off nasty, making it sound like it was in good faith. And it worked, given that Cyrus has adopted it into her everyday vocabulary.
Cyrus says this advice has stuck with her because you should want to be an individual and not conform to someone you admire. There’s beauty in the fact that we are all our own human beings.
“Like all of us in this room, you should just be you, and I can be me, and we can coexist. I think that when you start trying to be, you know, I don’t love the word idol, because it feels like something you’re worshiping, and I don’t want to be worshiped. I just want to be loved like everybody else.”
@billboard The new mantra 👏 @Miley Cyrus reveals the iconic piece of advice @Dolly Parton gave her while at an intimate ‘Something Beautiful’ screening/Q+A with Spotify in NYC. #mileycyrus #somethingbeautiful #dollyparton #advice ♬ original sound – billboard
Dolly Parton has been true to herself throughout her career, wearing what she wants, singing what she wants, and being the Southern Belle she is. So to hear her pass along this advice, it’s more than advice, it’s a way of life. To be in a business where everyone is judging you, it’s easy to lose sight of who you are inside, and acknowledging that there is only one of you is very powerful. Of course, you can admire others, but if you try to imitate them, you lose the “together we’ll be us” part of this saying. There must be two individuals to make it work, not two of the same person.
I bet she has a lot of other pieces of wisdom like this stored in her pocket, and I’d love to hear all of them one day.
Before you go, throw it back to one of my favorite Miley Cyrus performances of all time. From way back in 2012, her “Backyard Sessions” are absolute perfection,
