In this week’s issue of PARADE, Miley Cyrus talks to Kevin Sessums about saying farewell to her alter ego Hannah Montana and her new love Liam Hemsworth. In the web exclusive below, the teen queen admits why she’s steering clear of the country music scene, the real reason she quit Twitter and more.

Has her high energy ever been mistaken for ADD or ADHD?

“When I was in middle school I was told I might have one of those and if I were in high school now they would most likely tell me I do have one or both of those and put me on some sort of crazy medication.”

Miley lets her hair down! See exclusive photos from PARADE’s glamorous Cyrus photo shoot

Moving beyond her high-energy reputation.

“When I was eight years old, people were going, ‘Oh, my God. She’s crazy! What’s she going to be like when she’s 17?’ Well I’m 17 now and I’m doing pretty well for whatever it is that I am.”

Finding unbiased love with Liam Helmsworth.

“[Liam has] become my best friend in the whole wide world. I love him. He really respects me for who I am because coming from Australia, he really didn’t know me as the celebrity I am here. I got to tell him about myself on my own terms and my own way. He had no preconceived notion of who I was supposed to be.”

From pigtails to pole dancing, see photos of Miley Cyrus through the years



Tapping into her grandfather’s political legacy.

“My character’s name [in The Last Song] is Ronnie and that is in memory of my grandfather, Ron Cyrus, who died a couple of years ago from lung cancer. He was a politician in Kentucky and served in the state legislature for 21 years. A Democrat. I recently did a concert in Washington D.C. and I met all these people who knew my grandfather and told me what he had meant to them.”

Did the Obama girls come to the concert?

“Yes. The First Lady brought them. I had met them before because I sang at the inauguration. I think Michelle Obama is the most beautiful person to ever live in the White House. When she came to my concert she was dressed so classy and yet funky. I didn’t feel like I was talking to the First Lady. I just felt like I was talking to a normal person. I think that’s what’s so attractive about that whole family.”

Having Dolly Parton as her godmother.

“She is the nicest person in the world. She’s so easy to talk to. She’s awesome. I love her. She always tells me just to do what I love and if I’m not having fun it’s not working. I don’t know how old she is at this point but every time she is on the stage she is smiling from ear to ear.”

What she thinks of music’s latest sensation, Lady Gaga.

“I love her. She’s really smart. I caught her on Oprah and she was really chill. I used to be like, yeah, I guess she’s talented but how much is she really singing. But I’ve become a convert. She has to be smart to come up with all her gags and the stuff she comes up with. She gets it. She knows exactly what she’s doing. It’s like Dolly Parton. Dolly plays up that I’m-a-cute-dumb-blonde but, believe me, she’s not dumb. She’s sitting on a ba-jillion dollars.”

VIDEO: Get a behind-the-scenes look at Miley during her exclusive photo shoot.



What she’s watching — and not watching — on TV.

“I am screwed up in the mind a little bit because I’m not like other 16- or 17-year-old girls. I have no perspective of who exactly my fans are, to tell you the truth. Teenage girls in general are hard for me. I’m not a girl’s girl. And I don’t really watch television at all. But there is one show I’m addicted to: RuPaul’s Drag Race. I love me some RuPaul. I love RuPaul’s motto. It goes something like, ‘A real lady is never bitchy, a real lady is sassy.’”

Why she’s steering clear of the country scene.

“It scares me, that’s why. It feels contrived on so many levels. Unless you’re wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and singing and whining about your girlfriend or boyfriend leaving you it’s not going to sell. I think that’s why my dad finally got out of it. You have to wear those cowboy boots and be sweet as pie. It makes me nervous, the politics of it all.

Her relationship with the ever-present paparazzi.

“The other day I felt a little bit in danger for the first time because there were too many photographers following me in too many cars. And I have to ask myself, ‘Why would any other 50-year-old man who was stalking a 17-year-old girl go to jail, but not these guys? I’m not as American as anyone else?’ I mean, they couldn’t sit outside of a high school but they can sit outside my recording studio. It’s creepy.”

Knowing her faith.

“The one thing I’m really strong about regarding my religious beliefs is that you should know a little bit about everything before you define your own beliefs. I think all religions have a good practice in them. Liam and I have been reading about Buddhism lately and it’s all about hope and love. To me, faith is about having a clean slate and a clean start.”

Making mistakes and learning the power of forgiveness.

“You don’t have to say, ‘Well, I’m already a bad person so I might as well go ahead and do this other bad thing.’ It’s about knowing sometime that what you did wasn’t always the best choice but you now have the chance to start over again. That’s the biggest thing to me about my faith: you don’t have to live tallying up all the things you’ve done wrong. It’s all about forgiveness. If God who created the world can forgive you then you can forgive yourself.”

Tweeting up controversy.

“There has been so much controversy sometimes about what I’ve said or done because I believe there are no mistakes because God is the only one who can judge us. That’s the reason I deleted my Twitter account because I said on there that I believed in gay marriage because everyone should have the right to love each other, and I got such hate mail about my being a bad person.”