Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, the second installment of the singer’s three-part album trilogy, sparked a global conversation about country music. Cowboy Carter marked a moment much more considerable than music by bringing living legends like Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson with the genre’s unsung heroes and newcomers.
Miley Cyrus, who appeared on the album’s track “II Most Wanted,” reflected on being a part of Cowboy Carter’s extraordinary legacy while gracing the cover of W Magazine’s pop issue.
“I wrote that song, like, two and a half years ago,” she shared of “II Most Wanted.” “My mom would always go, ‘I love that song so much.’ So when Beyoncé reached out to me about music, I thought of it right away because it really encompasses our relationship. I told her, ‘We don’t have to get country; we are country. We’ve been country.’ I said, ‘You know, between you being from Texas and me being from Tennessee, so much of us is going to be in this song.’ Getting to write a song, not just sing, for Beyoncé was a dream come true.”
Cyrus added that the song wasn’t the first time she shared the mic with the Houston native.
“We performed together when I was really young, probably 14, at the Stand Up to Cancer benefit. I was sandwiched between Beyoncé and Rihanna, who were, you know, five feet ten inches and in heels. Their hips were, like, up to my shoulders. They were these powerful, fully realized, grown women, and I’m pretty sure I had braces on the back of my teeth. They were protective of me.”
She added, “My mom helped some of the girls — Nicole Scherzinger’s jeans were too big for her, so my mom went to H&M and bought her a gold-studded belt so she could perform. My mom still has that belt. I was in her closet the other day, and I was like, ‘Why the f**k do you have this gold-studded belt that was for Nicole Scherzinger?’ That Christmas, Beyoncé sent me a House of Deréon jacket that said Miley on the back in gold studs, which is my favorite, and some jeans with my name on it. In one of my songs, “Cattitude,” I say, “And for my 16th birthday, I got Deréon from the house of the queen.”
The former Disney star shared that she and Bey have a lot in common, including having mothers who are invested in and supportive of their massive careers.
“One of the things that we text about is our relationships with our mothers,” she told W. “Like her mom, Ms. Tina, my mom is also an M.T.: Mama Tish. A lot of people call her Mom, in the way that Ms. Tina is almost not just a mother to Beyoncé, but to Beyoncé’s fans as well. Both of us grew up, in our own way, with moms who were everything. My mom was my makeup, hair, seamstress, styling, tour manager—like, the actual manager. The word ‘mother’ is the most all-encompassing word. The mother can be RuPaul; the mother can be Beyoncé. Our fans call us ‘mother.'”
The “See You Again” singer, set to be honored at the Disney Legends Awards Ceremony this year, also opened up about her childhood star experience and its continued effect on her life and career.
“People have 50- or 60-year-long careers, but mine has been close to 20 years, and I’m 31. I have been in the public for more of my life than I haven’t. They say that the creative adult is the child who survived. I worked really hard as a child. I didn’t go to prom. I didn’t go to dances. I didn’t have so much of that social experience or time for friends. Disney, they were doing very well off of the amount of work that I was putting in as a child. I don’t have any bad feelings about that. It’s just the truth.”
She continued, “And so I think they have to give me this award. I’m excited to celebrate that with the fans. Something I wanted to talk about with you is celebration versus competition, because competition is really of no interest to me. I don’t think of other artists as opponents. Artists are not the same as athletes, playing a zero-sum game and keeping a score. There isn’t a score in art.”
