Miley Cyrus’s return to major live performance is framed less as a comeback than as an attempt to redesign the job around the life she now wants. Her upcoming Hollywood Bowl shows become the anchor for a revealing discussion about why traditional touring stopped working for her: sleep, recovery, sobriety, familiar routines and proximity to the people and animals that ground her have become more important than maintaining the relentless schedule expected of a touring pop star. The amusing fixation on perfect bedding initially sounds like celebrity eccentricity, but it develops into a surprisingly coherent explanation of how she has learned to protect her energy without abandoning performance altogether.
That reasoning gains considerably more weight when Cyrus describes the circumstances surrounding a huge post-pandemic performance in Mexico. She recalls a frightening flight, the death of her friend Taylor Hawkins, testing positive for COVID and then facing an enormous audience while emotionally and physically overwhelmed. Her account is careful enough to evolve as she tells it: rather than simply labeling the experience an anxiety attack, she argues that many of the dangers and losses occupying her thoughts were actually happening. Most importantly, she identifies a larger problem in the entertainment machinery—the assumption that the show continues regardless of what has happened to the performer—and connects that experience directly to her preference for performing closer to home.
The conversation is equally effective when it moves from recovery into artistic identity. Cyrus talks candidly about having once associated her creativity and public reputation with partying, then discovering that sobriety required changing not only her habits but her idea of what audiences expected from her. Her distinction between the private person feeding rescue animals in the morning and the larger persona appearing in elaborate costumes and music videos gives the interview a useful through-line. Hannah Montana, rather than being treated merely as nostalgic trivia, becomes a reference point for understanding how Cyrus has spent much of her life negotiating the difference between performance and self.
The music discussion provides some of the interview’s most concrete creative detail. Cyrus explains how “Aftermath” changed after Maxx Morando bluntly called its original ballad arrangement boring, leading to a faster treatment while preserving its emotional core. She also describes improvised lyrics emerging during the recording process and discusses “Let’s Get Married” as a more direct counterpart to the record’s poetic material. “Bass Persuades” receives an especially lively breakdown, ranging from Pink Floyd and Wayne Coyne as creative reference points to the horse imagery, galloping percussion made with shoes and Cyrus’s desire to create something rooted in personal associations rather than an algorithmically reproducible formula. These specifics make the artistic discussion much more illuminating than generic promotional praise of a new record.
Dolly Parton’s presence shifts the conversation into more vulnerable territory. Cyrus describes Parton as both family and a trusted source of career advice, recalling encouragement to use the transformative power of clothes, hair and performance when she was struggling to return to the stage. Her reflections on Parton, Lorne Michaels and Mick Fleetwood also reveal an awareness that many of the older artists and mentors she has relied upon will not always be available to guide her. The emotion feels organic rather than engineered, particularly because it connects directly to the interview’s recurring question of how a performer can step into a public persona without denying whatever is happening privately.
The interview is much looser when it moves into Cyrus’s engagement, household routines, vacation habits, bedding purchases and playful arguments with Morando. Her proposal story is funny and revealing, particularly the detail that she tried to search him for a ring before he surprised her, while her description of marriage as something playful rather than restrictive fits neatly with her earlier fear that commitment might cost her freedom. Still, the extended bedding discussions, shopping anecdotes and conversational detours substantially inflate the running time. Zane Lowe’s enthusiasm helps Cyrus speak freely, but his frequent affirmations sometimes reinforce her observations rather than probing them, leaving potentially richer subjects—especially the practical future of live performance and the making of the record—with less attention than they could have received.
Pros
- Cyrus gives a thoughtful and unusually specific explanation of why conventional touring became unsustainable for her and how she is trying to perform differently.
- The Mexico performance story provides meaningful context for her changing relationship with live shows, recovery and personal boundaries.
- Detailed accounts of developing “Aftermath” and “Bass Persuades” offer genuine insight into her songwriting and production process.
- Reflections on Dolly Parton, Hannah Montana and sobriety connect different stages of Cyrus’s career without reducing them to simple nostalgia.
- Cyrus’s humor and willingness to discuss mundane domestic routines give the conversation an engaging sense of personality.
Cons
- Extended tangents about bedding, household items and shopping repeatedly pull attention away from the stronger discussions of music and performance.
- Lowe’s highly supportive interviewing style sometimes produces affirmation where a sharper follow-up could have developed Cyrus’s ideas further.
- Several potentially substantial subjects, including Cyrus’s alternative to conventional touring and the broader creative direction of the album, receive less sustained exploration than the interview’s length would suggest.
Cyrus is most compelling here when she connects the practical details of her current life to a larger rethinking of performance, creativity and the public persona she has carried since childhood. The conversation wanders considerably, but its strongest passages reveal an artist trying to preserve the excitement of performing without surrendering the stability she has deliberately built around herself.
