On Friday the 28-year-old megastar poses topless for the cover of the magazine’s January 2021 issue where she talks about some troubling times in her life, as well as her new album Plastic Hearts.

Gracing the cover in nothing but a pair of pantyhose, Cyrus talks about approaching a new chapter in her life with a rock and roll sound and a clear head.

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Baring it all: Miley Cyrus, 28, poses topless for the cover of Rolling Stone where she talks about her new rock n roll sound as well as her past public struggles that have led to her current success as a serious artist

 

A tough time: ‘A couple of years ago, it looked like I was living some fairy tale. It really wasn’t. At that time, my experimentation with drugs and booze and the circle of people around me was not fulfilling or sustainable or ever going to get me to my fullest potential and purpose,’ she said; seen with Liam Hemsworth in 2018

Despite a new chapter she recalls a darker time in her life as she talks about the innate pain she was going through circa 2017 and 2018 that caused her to rely on substances.

‘A couple of years ago, it looked like I was living some fairy tale. It really wasn’t. At that time, my experimentation with drugs and booze and the circle of people around me was not fulfilling or sustainable or ever going to get me to my fullest potential and purpose,’ she said.

Cyrus also recalls the media’s tendency to associate her fluctuating look with trying to get a gauge on what she was going through as an artist.

They would say her, ‘Hair’s long and blond, she’s sane right now. She cannot be f***ed up on drugs. It’s when her hair is painted or she’s growing out her armpit hair [that] she’s on drugs,’ Miley chirped.

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Bangerz: Cyrus 2013 album Bangerz found Miley in a place where she was hypersexualized and not taken seriously after trying so hard to do a 360 from the Disney image that first catapulted her to fame; pictured 2015

With her hands cupping her breasts and slew of edgy jewelry covering her arms, hands, and torso, Cyrus peels back the layers of herself for an honest and telling interview.

Rocking a blonde mullet which has become synonymous with the singer over the past few months and her red lips snarled, Cyrus talks about her past image and how she feels a new sense of acclaim for her pure talent.

‘I guess I’m just in love with the fact that for once it feels like it’s really focused on the music, and I think I felt that I almost took some blame for the distraction sometimes,’ she says citing past media antics that took away from her talent.

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‘Cocktail of chaos’: The Plastic Hearts singer says that her new album is a product of inspirations like Jett, Blondie and Dolly as she says she strives to show her generation everything that created the ‘cocktail of chaos that I am’; pictured in 2019

‘You remember me getting naked,’ she says about her 2013 single Wrecking Ball (in which she straddles a heavy steel ball) as she discusses the emphasis on her sexuality while adding, ‘What makes you an adult, I think, is being OK with who you’ve been before,’ as she talks about diminishing shame.

Harping on inspirations like Blondie, Joan Jett, and longtime confidant Dolly Parton as inspirations for her new album – which dropped last week – Cyrus says she aims to introduce her generation to ‘to everything that inspired me and created this cocktail of chaos that I am.’

She added, ‘I’m so settled in what I’m doing and who I am. All I’ve ever wanted is respect as an artist and to have pride in what I make. I think that comes with the dedication and diligence that I really put in the effort. I put in the work.’

Plastic Hearts: Miley Cyrus stars in promo for new singles

Rough patch: Cyrus discussed a pivotal point in her life where she was experimenting with drugs and alcohol after shedding her Disney persona; pictured 2014

Getting sober: After reclaiming sobriety by the age of 27, Miley said that after getting clean in November 2019 the pandemic caused her to fall off, ‘I lost myself there,’

Talking about her decision to get sober after a lengthy and public love affair with marijuana as well as harder drug use she said she decided to get it together as she hit a pivotal age.

‘I got to pull my sh** together before I’m 27, because 27 is the time you cross over that threshold into living or dying a legend. I didn’t want to not make it through being 27,’ she recalled.

Though committed to sobriety, she admitted that she was not immune to the stress of the pandemic as she shared it caused her to relapse.

‘It was really a struggle. Mental health and anxiety and all that. I lost myself there, and now I’m back on five weeks,’ she exclaimed.

Miley Cyrus flaunts physique as she poses with Lil Nas X in promo

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27 club: Not wanting to fall victim to the ’27 club’ – the notorious list of famous artist who died at the age of 27 – Miley said that her ‘sobriety was a choice’ and that she realized she had to  her ‘sh** together’; pictured 2020

Adding that she had to take a hard look at her life and make the concerted effort to get clean she said, ‘Sobriety was a choice. It depends how you look at it. I think it’s necessary for me to fulfill my purpose right now.’

With a new album and a higher purpose to fulfill, Cyrus discussed the idea of ‘legacy’ and what that looks like.

‘I’d like to be known as someone that created something that didn’t quite exist, or that I delivered something that no one knew that they needed or wanted, but when they had it felt that they couldn’t live without it. That’s what I would want as an artist.’

She added that being a good daughter has always been at the top of her list while also talking about her philanthropic work through her Happy Hippie Foundation.

‘I’d want to have been a trailblazer, but I think it’s really hard talking about it because I’m still so here with so much left to do. I couldn’t really tell you how I’d want to be remembered because all the things that I’d hopefully be remembered for haven’t happened yet,’ she concluded.

Legacy: Cyrus shared that she wants to be remembered as a ‘trailblazer,’ while sharing that she cannot really say how she wants to be remembered because she has so much left to do; pictured February 2020