The Old-School Way Dolly Parton And Miley Cyrus Stay In Touch
Miley Cyrus may have risen to fame as a child actor for her role as Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel show of the same name but that doesn't mean she hasn't got a number of famous relatives that came before and after her.
As most will already know by now, her father is country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. The '90s icon behind the hits "Achy Breaky Heart," "Could've Been Me," and "Old Town Road" remix with Lil Nas X married Tish Cyrus, who has since produced a number of movies Miley has starred in including "The Last Song," "LOL," and "So Undercover." Miley's siblings have also carved out careers in entertainment after she did. Her youngest sister, Noah Cyrus, is also a musician as well as her two brothers, Braison and Trace Cyrus. Brandi Cyrus, on the other hand, is currently perusing an occupation as a DJ.
However, that's not where her famous family tree ends. Miley's godmother is no other than the legendary Dolly Parton, who she stated she was "pretty lucky" to have during an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" in May 2022. The pair collaborated on a T-Mobile Superbowl commercial in February of the same year. With that said, the way they communicate with one another is not what you'd expect.
Dolly Parton communicates with Miley Cyrus through a fax machine
Dolly Parton stays in touch with Miley Cyrus in a very old-fashioned way. Instead of texting or DMing the "We Can't Stop" hitmaker, Parton chooses to send her messages by a fax machine. During a televised interview on "Late Night with Seth Myers," Cyrus detailed the whole process. "We do use the phone," Cyrus admitted. "But she does a fax, and then someone scans the fax, and then they put it into a text message, and then that gets sent to me." In true Parton style, Cyrus revealed that the "Islands In The Stream" singer signs each fax before sending it over.
The extra care Parton puts into her messages has influenced Cyrus to put more effort into her communications. "I've kind of started my own version where I go into the notes, and I've started to try to make my own letters because there's something so amazing — it's just about a connection," Cyrus expressed. It seems to do things the old-school way is how Parton rolls as her goddaughter also mentioned the time Parton made her a demo. "It was all through a cassette, which she then voice-memoed onto a flip phone, which someone put onto an iPhone, which was then sent to me," Cyrus added.
That voice note ended up featuring as the intro of their song, "Rainbowland," which was released in 2017. During an Instagram Live premiering the song, Cyrus referred to Parton as her "fairy godmother."
Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton have performed together more than once
"Rainbowland" wasn't the first time Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton teamed up together to collaborate musically. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Dollywood, Parton took part in a Hallmark TV special in 2010 that featured a number of guests. One of them, of course, was her goddaughter Miley Cyrus who joined the Grammy Award winner on stage to sing "Jolene" with her. At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019, Parton joined a series of female artists, Cyrus included, who paid tribute to the music icon with a number of performances of her hits.
That same year, Parton released her own anthology dramedy streaming series on Netflix called "Dolly Parton's Heartstrings." Even though dancer and actor Julianne Hough played the role of Jolene, Parton revealed to Entertainment Tonight that Cyrus was her first choice for the part. "Years back when I used to think of Jolene, you know, before Julianne came on, I used to think... 'I'd love Miley.' She would have been great at that as well. But Miley was doing other things," she explained.
During an appearance on "Anderson Live," Parton confessed that she doesn't get to see Cyrus as often as she would like to. With that said, she referred to the fellow singer as a "special gal." Parton insisted she doesn't give people advice. Instead, she shares "information" if asked for it.