“I Had To Protect Myself”: Miley Cyrus Opens Up About Sobriety And Relapsing During The Pandemic
She says the spectre of joining the 27 club really motivated her.
Miley Cyrus has revealed she was motivated into sobriety by the spectre of the ’27 club’ after relapsing during the pandemic.
While chatting on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music show, Cyrus was asked about her sobriety, after having announced in June she was then six months without alcohol, originally in preparation and in recovery from a vocal surgery before continuing to not drink. She revealed she relapsed in recent months, but was, at the time of recording, two weeks sober.
“I like a lot of people, being completely honest, during the pandemic fell off… and I would never sit here and go, ‘I’ve been fucking sober’,” she said.
“I realise that I’m now back on sobriety, two weeks sober, and I feel like I’ve really accepted that time and one of the things I’ve used is: “Don’t get furious, get curious”. So don’t be mad at yourself, but ask yourself, ‘What happened?'”
She also said that her problem isn’t necessarily with drinking, but the ‘impulsive’ decisions she makes once she ‘goes past that level’. Moderation, she’s found, doesn’t work for her, so she decided to go cold.
Cyrus says one large motivator to return to sobriety was the ’27 club’, knowing that musicians including Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix had died at 27 (among others).
“27 to me was a year that I really had to protect myself,” she said. “That actually really made me want to get sober, because we’ve lost so many icons at 27. It’s a very pivotal time. You go into that next chapter or this is it for you.”
Earlier this year, speaking to Variety, Cyrus said there was a stigma attached with being sober as a young person.
“It’s really hard because especially being young, there’s that stigma of ‘you’re no fun..’,” she said.”It’s like, ‘honey, you can call me a lot of things, but I know that I’m fun.'”
Cyrus’ new album, Plastic Hearts, is out this Friday, featuring ‘Midnight Sky’ and tracks with Dua Lipa, Billy Idol, Stevie Nicks and Joan Jett. She’s also planning to drop an album of Metallica covers in the future, after cementing her distinct knack for covering classics this year.
She turned 28 earlier this week. Watch the full interview with Lowe below.