Godmother knows best! Many fans worried when Miley Cyrus took a wrecking ball to her squeaky clean Hannah Montana persona in favor of an edgier, sexed-up image—but her godmother, country music legend Dolly Parton, wasn't one of them. Writing about Cyrus for Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People list, the "Jolene" singer, 68, said she's confident her 21-year-old goddaughter is exactly where she wants to be.
"If I didn't know how smart and talented Miley is, I might worry about her. But I've watched her grow up. So I don't. She knows what she's doing," Parton wrote of the Bangerz star, the daughter of country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus.
"She was very proud of the work she did as Hannah Montana, but people were gonna leave her there forever," the Grand Ole Opry inductee continued. "And she was just smotherin' and chokin' in it. So she felt she had to do something completely drastic."
That something was a total makeover. Cyrus did a complete 180, not just with her appearance — remember her long brunette hair?—but also with her music and her public identity. As Parton put it, "She made her point, she made her mark, and more power to her."
The Dollywood entertainer went on to note, however, that there's more to Cyrus than her headline-making stunts. "So I'm hoping that now she can relax and show people how talented she really is," she wrote. "'Cause the girl can write. The girl can sing. The girl is smart. And she doesn't have to be so drastic. But I will respect her choices. I did it my way, so why can't she do it her way?"
