Miley Cyrus opens up about father Billy Ray Cyrus’ struggle with sobriety and their complex bond

Miley Cyrus is getting candid about her country superstar father, Billy Ray Cyrus.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Miley spoke at length about Billy Ray, the current state of their relationship, how she struggled when he and her mother Tish Cyrus divorced, and more.

During one part of the intimate interview, Miley's sobriety came up. 

She has been open about her choice to abstain from drugs and alcohol, but earlier this year, her famous brother, musician Trace Cyrus, who is sober himself, suggested that Billy Ray was perhaps not making that same choice.

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Now, Miley is sharing some details about what Billy Ray has been going through.

When asked if she's ever talked to her father about her own experience with sobriety, she said, "I think he has a harder time enjoying being sober. I kind of enjoy it. I think my dad is somebody that’s like, ‘That would be real nice right now.’ He calls it a good bad habit. Things that make you feel good, but you know they’re bad."

She continued, "So I think for him, I grew up in a different generation. My dad grew up between the ’60s and the ’80s. It wasn’t normal for you to have your psychiatrist on speed dial. So I think my dad just really didn’t have the support."

Miley said they don't "avoid" the subject, "but it’s not really something that’s our table talk."

"Me and my dad like to talk about music and movies," she explained. "It’s not something that’s ever been our focus, but it probably should be. We probably should talk about that at some point."

In January, Billy Ray performed at the Liberty Ball, which was held the night of President Donald Trump's inauguration. He experienced some technical difficulties, at one point asking the audience, "Check? Is anybody awake? Y'all want me to sing more, or you want me to just get the hell of the stage?"

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Some viewers were so critical that he issued a statement about his performance the next day, sharing on social media, "I wouldn’t have missed the honor of playing this event whether my microphone, guitar and monitors worked or not. I was there because President Donald J. Trump invited me. I had a ball at the Liberty Ball last night, and I’ve learned through all these years when the producer says, 'You’re on,' you go entertain the folks even if the equipment goes to hell."

He added, "I was there for the people, and we had a blast. That’s called rock n' roll!!!"

Shortly after that, Trace wrote in an open letter to his father, "You’re not healthy Dad & everyone is noticing it." 

At another point in the letter, he wrote, "I love you Dad. We haven’t talked in a while but I’m over a year and half clean from alcohol. Guess what? I feel amazing. I don’t know what you’re struggling with exactly but I think I have a pretty good idea & I’d love to help you if you would open up and receive the help."

In her new interview, Miley said that she has "a lot of grace" for Billy Ray.

"He grew up in severe poverty, not always having indoor bathrooms," she shared. "He had rarely, if at all, gone to the dentist by the time he met my mom. No doctor’s appointments. He was raised in a super-small town in Kentucky. I spent some of my life in Nashville, but most of it was in L.A., in a safe neighborhood, and I just can’t even compare our upbringings in any way, shape or form. So I definitely have a really compassionate place in my heart for my dad’s upbringing that I can’t quite understand."

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She was then asked if she believed her father had ever felt "competitive or eclipsed" by her massive fame – while Billy Ray has enjoyed an undeniably successful career in country music, Miley became a child star with Disney's "Hannah Montana" and has been in the spotlight for decades with a wildly successful music career of her own.

"That has added a level of complexity within my family, for sure," she admitted. "I think it would be hard for anybody with a dream to see somebody else achieving theirs in a way that you see for yourself. But I do think love conquered all. He can still find the pride in me. But it would be delusional for any of us to think that that doesn’t add a level of complication to our already complicated dynamic."

When asked if she felt "guilty," she said that therapy has helped her get rid of "my guilt and shame."

"I had a hard time accepting that I could suffer, because of how blessed I am," Miley said. "I don’t think that’s actually played too much of a part between me and my dad, though, because I have to have the faith that, like any dad, he would want this for me."

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She admitted recently to having had "challenges" with Billy Ray over the years, but she told the New York Times that they're no longer estranged.

"I think timing is everything," she began. "As I’ve gotten older, I’m respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents — because my mom’s really loved my dad for her whole life, and I think being married to someone in the music industry and not being a part of it is obviously really hard. And so I think I took on some of my mom’s hurt as my own because it hurt her more than it hurt me as an adult, and so I owned a lot of her pain."

She continued, "But now that my mom is so in love with my stepdad, who I completely adore, and now that my dad, I see him finding happiness, too — I can love them both as individuals instead of as a parental pairing. I’m being an adult about it."

Miley said that it was "hard" at first, "because the little kid in you reacts before the adult in you can go, ‘Yes, that’s your dad, but that’s just another person that deserves to be in his bliss and to be happy.’"

She added, "My child self has caught up."