Miley Cyrus is living the high life — and she doesn’t care who knows it. The 20-year-old “We Can’t Stop” singer, who once said she was “disappointed” in herself for getting caught smoking salvia, now has no problems talking about her recreational drug use. In new outtakes from her recent Rolling Stone interview (which accompanied her topless cover shoot), the ex-child star raves that “weed is the best drug on earth,” especially compared to cocaine. MDMA — a.k.a. Molly — also gets a big thumbs up from the former Hannah Montana actress.
“One time I smoked a joint with peyote in it, and I saw a wolf howling at the moon,” Cyrus tells Rolling Stone contributing editor Josh Eells. “Hollywood is a coke town, but weed is so much better. And Molly, too. Those are happy drugs — social drugs. They make you want to be with friends. You’re out in the open. You’re not in a bathroom.”
She adds of using cocaine: “I really don’t like coke. It’s so gross and so dark. It’s like, what are you, from the ’90s? Ew.”
Not that the ’90s are bad, per se. In fact, Cyrus was inspired by an iconic early ’90s artist when she was filming the controversial music video for “Wrecking Ball,” in which she appears naked and licks a sledgehammer.
“It’s like the Sinead O’Connor video [for ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’], but, like, the most modern version,” the former tween queen tells Rolling Stone of the clip. “I wanted it to be tough but really pretty — that’s what Sinead did with her hair and everything.” (In the video for “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a bald but not naked O’Connor sings the sad ballad, and cries, in a tight closeup.)
Cyrus knows that a lot of viewers might not get it — but that’s their loss. “I think people are going to hate it; they’re going to see my ass and be like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe she did that,'” she says. “And then when we get to the bridge, they’re gonna have a little tear and be like, ‘F–k you!’ I think it will be one of those iconic videos, too. I think it’s something that people are not gonna forget. Hopefully an artist 30 years from now will be like, ‘Yo, you remember that Miley Cyrus video? We gotta do something like that.'”
The “Wrecking Ball” songstress also sets the record straight with Rolling Stone on why she’s constantly photographed with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. “I just stick my tongue out because I hate smiling in pictures,” she explains. “It’s so awkward. It looks so cheesy. Now people expect it — like, ‘Put your tongue out!’ It’s just easier that way. Taking pictures is so embarrassing.”
PHOTOS: Miley’s Rolling Stone cover shoot
Beyond that, she says, she wants to send the message that different can be beautiful. “There’s something empowering about what I’m doing right now. Especially having ‘short hair, don’t care.’ I think it’s empowering for girls,” she tells Eells. “Because there’s not one thing that defines what beauty is.”
There’s also not one thing that defines what a good relationship is. Cyrus — who split from fiance Liam Hemsworth earlier this month, this time presumably for good — says she learned from her parents, Tish and Billy Ray, that love ebbs and flows over time.
“It’s all a back-and-forth. Like, when my parents are good, they’re good, and when they’re not, they’re not, but they always get themselves back on track,” she explains of her mom and dad, who have filed for divorce twice in the last three years, only to reconcile both times. “They never put pressure on themselves. And I think that’s a better way to be. That’s how they’ve gotten themselves through everything they’ve been through.”
She notes, too, that 24/7 togetherness isn’t the same as closeness. “The best thing my parents ever taught me is that you don’t have to be attached at the f–king hip. You don’t have to be holding hands all the f–king time. Like, my dad can go chill in Nashville for a while, and my mom can stay in L.A., but they’re still walking side by side,” she says. “And as long as you’re on the same path, one can go a little ahead, and one can be a little behind.”
Cyrus’ parents have taught her a lot about being in showbiz, too. Her dad, who shot to fame with the song “Achy Breaky Heart” in 1992, was initially reluctant to let his daughter follow in his footsteps, but he’s very supportive of her career now.
“I think if he’d known how it was going to pan out, he would have let me. It’s more that he didn’t necessarily want me to. It’s almost like Toddlers and Tiaras — getting the little kids all dolled up and putting so much pressure on them to win,” she says. “He didn’t want me ever to feel…the right word isn’t ‘pageant-y,’ but I don’t think he wanted me to feel like I had to be a certain way.”
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Noting that she didn’t even dress herself until she was 16, she continues: “I think my dad wanted me to figure out all that on my own. To go through my awkward stages without people zooming in on every f–king pimple. I think he wanted me to be able to be a kid and have braces and go through my ugly phase without people talking about it. To be able to just hang and live.”
For more outtakes from Rolling Stone’s interview with Miley Cyrus, go to RollingStone.com.
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