Most people already know that Dolly Parton is Miley Cyrus’ godmother, but far fewer are aware that a racy tabloid was what planted the seed for that relationship in 1992, the same year the future “Flowers” singer was born. That star-studded connection began with Cyrus’ father, Billy Ray Cyrus, who toured with Dolly Parton in the early 1990s as her opening act while he promoted his honky-tonk smash hit, “Achy Breaky Heart.”
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Not long after Billy Ray and Parton began working together, tabloids began spreading rumors of a salacious love affair between the two musicians. Despite how embarrassed the mullet-clad singer was of these headlines, Parton’s reaction to them sealed the deal on their lifelong bond.
How A Racy Tabloid Turned Two Colleagues Into Fast Friends
In a 2018 interview with Dan Rather for AXS TV’s The Big Interview, Billy Ray Cyrus took listeners back to the early 1990s. Cyrus’ long hair was shorter in a mullet, “Achy Breaky Heart” was on the radio everywhere, and Dolly Parton had just invited this rising country star to be her opening act on tour. “It wasn’t long after that that some of the headlines in the tabloids had Dolly and myself as, you know, pictures of us and saying something was going on.”
“I was so upset about it,” Cyrus recalled, fearing that Parton would be upset by the rumors, too. “I hadn’t really met her. So, I told my manager—it was a National Enquirer—I said, ‘You think I could go meet Dolly and tell her how sorry I am about this?’ My manager said, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna make that happen.’ So, before my show, I went to Dolly’s dressing room, and they escorted me in. Dolly’s sitting there all beautiful, just like an angel.”
Cyrus said he approached Dolly and put the tabloid on the dressing room table in front of her. “She looked at it, and then she looked at me and said [with a wink], ‘Honey, that sells records.’ We laughed, and I never thought about it. From that moment on, we became very good friends.”
Dolly Parton Asked If She Could Be Miley Cyrus’ “Fairy” Godmother
Miley Cyrus was born on November 23, 1992, eight months after her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, released “Achy Breaky Heart” on his debut album, Some Gave All. In a 2012 interview with Anderson Cooper, Dolly Parton recalled Billy Ray coming up to her and insisting she be Miley’s godmother. “I said, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be around to where I can actually do all the duties that a godmother does,’” Parton said. “Let me be her fairy godmother.”
“I don’t get to see her as often as I’d love to,” she continued, “but she’s a special gal, and I hope she does great in this world.” The “Jolene” singer said she doesn’t typically give “advice,” just “information,” and that she has happily given her honorary goddaughter answers about anything she wants to know about the music business. Given Miley’s tremendous career since Parton spoke with Cooper in 2012, we’d say that the “Wrecking Ball” singer was able to put her fairy godmother’s “information” to good use.
Photo by: Vijat Mohindra/NBC via Getty Images
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