There’s a chance Miley Cyrus may never hit the road again. But, before you groan at the thought of missing your fave on stage, it’s for very valid health-related reasons.
The Grammy winner opened up about a recent health scare with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, detailing how she faced an “excruciating” and “traumatic” experience when performing with her godmother, Dolly Parton, during their New Year’s Eve special.
“I had a pretty traumatic experience on a show that I was doing with Lorne [Michaels] when I was doing my New Year’s show,” Miley shared. “I had a medical emergency. I had an ovarian cyst rupture. We didn’t know exactly what was going on, so we did it.”
She shared that she and the Saturday Night Live creator had a candid conversation after the show where she discussed almost quitting the music industry altogether.
“I had dinner with Lorne and he said something that now has stuck with me,” she told host Zane Lowe. “He goes, ‘Six months. Everybody has six months to feel sorry for themselves and then we start to rebuild.’”
She continued, “He’s like, ‘You have no idea how many artists have sat in this chair and told me they were quitting music. Everyone does this, everyone has these traumatic experiences.’”
Elsewhere in her Apple Music interview, Miley also spoke about how her sobriety and health journey have played a role in how she approaches live performances.
“Part of that is keeping myself mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally well, and I want to emphasize the ‘physically’ because of how taxing a physical live performance is. And something I wanted to mention to you, so I had the Reinke’s Edema, which is abuse of the vocal cords,” Miley explained.
“I have this very large polyp on my vocal cord, which has given me a lot of the tone and the texture that has made me who I am, but it’s extremely difficult to perform with because it’s like running a marathon with ankle weights on,” she continued, before adding, “My voice- is super unique because of it, but I do have this Reinke’s Edema and I have this large polyp on my cords and I’m not willing to sever it because the chance of waking up from a surgery and not sounding like myself is a probability.”
Miley last toured in 2014 to support her album Bangerz, and in 2019, she performed at a slew of festivals including Glastonbury and Lollapalooza. In 2023, she explained her decision to opt out of touring during an interview with British Vogue.
“Like singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love. There’s no connection. There’s no safety,” Miley told the publication. “It’s also not natural. It’s so isolating because if you’re in front of 100,000 people then you are alone.”
She added that touring ultimately affected her health, saying, “I was in a lot of pain. I was kind of back into the pop star thing and I noticed I had this flare-up.” She had asked herself, “Do I want to live my life for anyone else’s pleasure or fulfillment other than my own?”
