Miley Cyrus scored her 12th top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Used to Be Young,” which was released in August 2023 as part of the digital reissue of her eighth studio album “Endless Summer Vacation.” The song finds Cyrus looking back at her youth as she sings: “You tell me time has done changed me / That’s fine, I’ve had a good run / I know I used to be crazy / That’s ’cause I used to be young.”
In a new Harpar’s Bazaar cover story, Grammy winner Cyrus said “Used to Be Young” was perhaps too personal to release. She also revealed that her godmother, Dolly Parton, was skeptical of the song because the lyrics were not necessarily suited for someone Cyrus’ age.
“[Dolly] goes, ‘I don’t know if I like that new “Used to Be Young” song because it’s not fair that you’re singing about not being young when you’re young and beautiful. And here I am—I’m like 80—and I’m like, That should have been my song!’” Cyrus remembered.
“I actually listened to that song yesterday, and I was asking myself, ‘Did I really need to put this out?’” she added. “It was one of those things that maybe now that I’m a bit more private, I would’ve kept private, but I’m happy to have shared it. It just feels like a song that’s so personal that it’s hard for people to relate.”
The song was included on “Endless Summer Vacation,” which earned a Grammy nomination for album of the year. The album’s lead single, “Flowers,” was a blockbuster and won two Grammys: record of the year and best pop solo performance. The smash success of Cyrus’ most recent music has fans clamoring for her next album, which the singer told Harpar’s Bazaar is inspired by Pink Floyd.
Cyrus is working with “Mandy” director Panos Cosmatos on a visual album that is likely to arrive in 2025. She originally pitched remaking “Mandy” as a musical, but that project never got off the ground. Instead the singer and the director teamed up for her next album, which is billed as being just as visual as it is music driven.
“It was inspired by Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall,’” Cyrus teased. “We really leaned in. And so I have this heart-first attachment to it. My idea was making ‘The Wall,’ but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture.”
Cosmatos calls the album “more experimental than anything she’s ever done, but in a pop way that I love.”
Cyrus added that the album is “hypnotizing and glamorous,” concluding, “It’s a concept album that’s an attempt to medicate somewhat of a sick culture through music.”
Head over to Harpar Bazaar’s website to read Cyrus’ latest cover story in its entirety.