Miley Cyrus is on the cusp of a new era – in more ways than one. With the release of Bass Persuades, her tenth studio album, she’s dropping her surname and will be known simply as Miley.
At the same time, a short teaser video indicates that she could also be about to make some kind of musical pivot. This features Miley wearing an Elvis-style jumpsuit while playing a mystery custom black Fender Stratocaster, leading some fans to speculate that she could be about to ‘go rock’.
We’ll find out soon enough if that’s true – Miley has since posted a further teaser for the title track from the album, which will be released later today as its first single. This also has her wielding that black Strat as she walks towards the camera.
It should be said, though, that Miley has been a fan of the guitar right from the start of her career. As long ago as 2008, when she was only 15 and most famous as the star of Hannah Montana, she told the Mirror: “My guitar is like my best friend. My guitar can get me through anything. If I can sit down and write an amazing song with my guitar about what's going on in life, then that's the greatest therapy for me."
Discussing her love of songwriting with Seventeen that same year, Miley said: “I write anytime I get a chance. I figure it out. I play my guitar and I stay up until like 2 in the morning. I actually have a melody on my guitar right now. You know when you start you just can't stop.”
What’s more, we learned in 2014 that, even during her backstage downtime, Miley didn’t want to put the guitar down - sort of.
"My tour rider used to ask for Guitar Hero and Frosted Flakes,” she told the Evening Standard. “Now I just kind of want the Guitar Hero."
As if further proof were needed that Miley has always been a rock star at heart, let’s not forget that, when performing live, she’s also covered a string of classic songs by the likes of Led Zeppelin (Black Dog), Metallica (Nothing Else Matters), Pink Floyd (Comfortably Numb) and The Cranberries (Zombie).
There’s evidence of Miley’s rock leanings on her records, too: 2025 single Secrets featured both Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, and Billy Idol appeared on the ‘80s-inspired Night Crawling, from 2020’s Plastic Hearts.
Explaining why she called her new album Bass Persuades on Instagram, Miley wrote: “Music takes hold of us. We feel it, sing it, sometimes dance to it, let it out and carry on. It is powerful, vulnerable, sweet and strong.
“Heart full, heartache, every part of life in between. That’s what the title means to me.”
The album will be released on 18 September. Miley will also be playing two live shows at the Hollywood Bowl on October 16 and 18.
