Miley Cyrus on Godmother Dolly Parton: She’s My Role Model

The appreciation between Miley Cyrus and godmother Dolly Parton is mutual.

Just a week after the country legend publicly supported her controversial goddaughter, the pop singer told a German television show that Parton “has always been my role model.”

“She’s a legend and unlike anyone I’ve ever seen before,” Cyrus, 20, told Wetten … Dass? during an appearance Saturday, which also included a performance of her hit, “Wrecking Ball” while dressed in an ensemble even she likened to a strawberry.

Last week, Parton, 67, defended Cyrus against critics of the skin-baring star, who raised millions of eyebrows this summer during her twerk-tastic MTV Video Music Awards performance.

She’s “just trying to find her own place and wings and learn to fly,” she told the London Evening Standard.

This weekend, Cyrus again  defended her “Wrecking Ball” video, which also stirred controversy for featuring the erstwhile Disney star swinging naked from a wrecking ball.

“It was one of my crazy ideas,” she said. “I wanted to do something different and feel what it’s like not to have anything on.”

“It’s not about changing my image, it’s just about wanting to be honest about who I am as a young woman,” she added. “It’s more than shedding an image, it’s showing what I think I am.”

Along those lines, Cyrus also gave an interesting response when asked whether it’s been difficult transitioning from a child to an adult star.

“I think that’s why I am an adult dressed like a strawberry,” she said. “I’m an adult being a kid.”

People Magazine