What We Learned from Miley Cyrus’ Howard Stern Interview

Miley Cyrus sat down with Howard Stern for a lengthy interview on Wednesday where she opened up about her rebellious post-Disney years, her break from weed, and her on-and off relationship with Liam Hemsworth.

Here are the things we learned from the interview, according to E! News.

Her birth name is Destiny Hope.

Father Billy Ray Cyrus chose the name because it was her “destiny to bring hope to the world.” But her dad dubbed her Miley because she was “always smiling,” the 24-year-old singer said. The nickname stuck then became her screen name.

Her dad initially did not want her to audition for Disney’s Hannah Montana.

Billy Ray didn’t want his daughter to experience the same kind of rejection he suffered in Hollywood. Unluckily, the show cast another girl to shoot the pilot but Disney returned to Miley and the rest is history.

She got booted from school for teaching other kids what a French kiss was.

After the young star learned what a French kiss is, she shared it with her classmates. Word got back to school and her parents got called in.

She lives in the house where she recorded her first album.

The “Wrecking Ball” singer recorded Meet Miley Cyrus, her first studio album, in a house in Malibu. Years later, she broke up with Liam and he needed a place to go so he bought a house in Malibu. He had no idea it was the same house.

Now Miley lives back in that house with Liam and her single “Malibu” is about their life together.

She hasn’t smoked weed in eight months.

“I think it set some paranoia into me and then it started going into my real life when I wasn’t stoned,” she explained. “It was when Snoop had said, ‘you smoke more than anyone I know.’ And I was like, ‘Alright, I gotta cut it out.’”

“This record means so much to me and I want to be able to tell people what I feel about the record in a non-stoned way.”

She knows that her “Wrecking Ball” video will never go away.

“Swinging around naked in the middle of a bunch of rubble licking a sledge hammer—that’s forever,” she said. “That’s not going anywhere.”

She considered her 2013 VMA performance as “the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.”

“I didn’t like it because I thought I had done something that was gonna make everyone talk about me. That’s not why I liked it,” Miley explained.

“The reason why that’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life is that’s when I realized my power,” she added. She brought a homeless teen as her date to the awards show the following year, because she wanted to channel it into something productive. “I brought a young homeless teen because I realized my f–king power there.”

Her mother, Tish Cyrus, was the one who keeps her grounded.

“My mom is back there right now and she’s the one person that, even though I would be on a tour in front of 30,000 people, the woman would still take my cell phone away.”