Miley Cyrus understands that she can always rely on music as a source of comfort. When it was time to reconcile with her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, the Grammy winner decided that a song would serve as the perfect peace offering via EW. This led her to write “Secrets,” which explores their complicated father-daughter relationship and addresses rumors of a rift between them. As per Cyrus, her father’s reaction to the song was exactly what she had hoped for.
“My dad cried,” Cyrus revealed on the Oct. 5 episode of CBS News Sunday Morning, adding, “Everyone I say that to, they go, ‘I remember when my dad cried.’ You don’t see your dad cry a lot.”
Ahead of the song’s release on September 18th as part of Something Beautiful‘s deluxe edition, “Secrets” was given to Billy Ray for his 64th birthday in August. Cyrus noted that whether they are “happy tears or painful tears,” it always makes a big impression when a parent cries and that day was no exception.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen my dad cry since his dad passed away,” she shared. “My dad, you know, I just haven’t really seen that.”
The emotional ballad, which sees Cyrus join forces with Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, was a source of “mixed emotions” for the singer and her father amid rumors of turmoil in the family. However, expressing her feelings through music was the best way for them to “move forward.”
“We didn’t feel that there needed to be a whole conversation, because him and I just communicate better through song,” Cyrus explained.
“And so once he got the song, it feels like it said something in a couple of minutes that would have taken — maybe a family with a more structured, therapeutic dynamic — a lot of sessions.”
She continued, “But instead of us doing sessions, we just do studio sessions. And we send a song and we say, ‘I love you.’ And that feels peaceful for us.”
Arguing that it’s important to get those feelings out, Cyrus noted that there shouldn’t be “any judgment to how people make peace,” reiterating that music has always been what’s worked for them.
“With me and my dad, we just have always communicated better through music with each other,” Cyrus said. “We always communicate through songs. Half the time, we don’t even say, you know, ‘good morning,’ ‘good night,’ ‘how are you?’ It’s just YouTube… He just sends me music constantly. And that’s the best way that we communicate for sure.”
