The world lost an icon, and Miley lost her godmother.
On August 25, 2026, Dolly Parton sadly passed away at 80-years-old in Nashville Tennessee. Dolly had been dealing with undisclosed health issues for the last year or so, and she previously shared that she was having issues with severe kidney stones. Dolly’s reps confirmed she sadly died following a “brief battle with cancer,” though the specific kind was not revealed.
Dolly is of course Miley Cyrus’ godmother, and she hit the jackpot in that sense… obviously, any musician would be lucky to have Dolly in their corner giving advice and helping them make decisions about industry-related things, in addition to general life advice.
Miley has talked about their relationship before, and in an interview today with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe on the release day of her new album Bass Persuades, Miley opened up about the loss of someone who was like family to her and has known her since she was a little girl.
She admitted she might start crying while she talked about Dolly, and Miley revealed the last conversation she had with Dolly was about the aforementioned album she dropped today. She also noted how beyond her obvious outward beauty, she loved Dolly for her authenticity and realness, just like everyone else:
“I’m just trying to keep myself together, 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. She knew this, and I know this.
She’s known for the faux, the fake, the hair, the makeup, the show of it, but there’s a part of her that’s just, what everyone gravitates towards is how real she is and how authentic she is. There was a time in my life, I mean, we hit on it with Hannah, so much of my life was about persona.
And I think a way that I could look at it as, you can have a ‘persona,’ and still be who I was, because I had Dolly.”
Like Dolly, Miley says there are different sides to her, and Dolly taught her how to have a persona while still being true to yourself:
“Sometimes I call what I do drag, because he way I present myself is just someone that is so different than the person who feeds the tortoise every morning. But again, that person is inside me—I just kind of have her off.”
She also told a great story about Dolly calling her after seeing her cry while performing “End of the World” on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, saying she needed to hold it together because music is for the audience to cry, not her on stage:
“In my performances, I always cry, I can’t help it. ‘End Of The World,’ I start crying and she watched me on Letterman and she was like, ‘What are you crying about?” I was like, ‘That song is about the world ending and me never seeing my mom again. She was like, ‘Music is escapism. Let them cry. Get through it.’ I was like, ‘I know, but this is who I am.’ And she loved me for it.”
Classic Dolly…
Miley previously told Zane another great story about the time she put out her eighth studio album Endless Summer Vacation in 2023, Dolly was not a fan of how Miley was marketing the record, because it included a lot of bikini photos and very little other marketing. Dolly told Miley that people were asking her about what Miley was up to, and she had no clue what to say.
Miley and Dolly were in the car together, and since Miley’s house is 45 minutes from where Dolly lives, they were stuck together for this conversation:
“She didn’t love my ‘Vacation’ era either. She’s like, ‘Everyone’s asking me where you are and I’m wondering the same thing.’ She’s like, ‘Everyday, it’s just a new picture of you in a bikini, but like, what are you gonna do for the thing?’ I was like, ‘Well, I’m working on something else. We’ve already worked on the thing.’
She’s like, ‘That’s not what you do with a project.’ She picked me up from my house so I had 45 minutes in a trapped car on the way to her house. So there was no escaping the talking to that I was getting.”
Zane asked:
“Did she come in hot?”
Miley responded:
“HOT.”
I love hearing about this side of Dolly, and we all know Miley had some wild years back in the day, but she’s definitely evolved as an artist over the years, so I’m sure this isn’t the only tough conversation they’ve had. Honestly, Miley’s really lucky to have had someone like Dolly to do that, because the music business is ruthless and most artists would do anything to have such a successful, seasoned entertainer in the icon herself, Dolly Parton, in their corner.
It’s clear the two of them had a very special relationship, and you can tell just how much Dolly meant to Miley when you hear her talk about her late godmother.
The full interview is available below.
