Sometimes it's easy to forget that Dolly Parton, country superstar, is godmother to Miley Cyrus, twerking popstar. But she really is – think about it: Miley's dad is Billy Ray Cyrus, a pop-country crossover artist, and he's collaborated with Dolly a fair few times.
We recently received a reminder when Dolly once again went on the record to defend her goddaughter, proudly confirming how much she's got in common with the Wrecking Ball singer. When asked if she sympathises with the former child star, herself having been a star from the age of 10, she replied:
'Yeah, well I do, 'cause back in the day, doing my own things my own way, and dressing sexy and showing my cleavage and all that, I got a lot of criticism. Lots of people thought I was making a mistake and that I was just trashy, which I was. So I did go through that, but I don't give her advice. Everyone has to walk this journey according to their own rules. That's what she's doing. And I lurve her.'
Dolly's serious. The last time she spoke about Miley was when she wrote a profile of her for Time's People Of The Year 2014 issue. In that, she said: 'If I didn’t know how smart and talented Miley is, I might worry about her. But I’ve watched her grow up, so I don’t. She knows what she’s doing.'
Unfortunately, the line some gossip sites chose to run with went a bit like this: 'She doesn’t have to be so drastic.'
However, they didn't add in the closing bit: 'But I will respect her choices. I did it my way, so why can't she do it her way?'
Hopefully any doubters out there have now been put right on the issue. Dolly <3 Miley.
** Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson**
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.