Miley Cyrus, now sober again, blames pandemic for falling off the wagon

Pop star Miley Cyrus, who in June said she had been six months sober, confessed Monday to having fallen off the wagon.

"I, like a lot of people, being completely honest, during the pandemic fell off," Cyrus, who turned 28 that day, said on the subscription service Apple Music's "New Music Daily Radio with Zane Lowe," according to transcripts by NBC's "Today," the music magazine NME and other outlets. "I fell off and I realized that I now am back on sobriety, two weeks sober, and I feel like I really accepted that time," she said. It was unclear if the time she had accepted was her two weeks' sobriety or her time not sober.

Speaking in a joint interview with singer Dua Lipa, with whom she was promoting their new single, "Prisoner," Cyrus added, "One of the things I've used is 'Don't get furious, get curious.' So don't be mad at yourself, but ask yourself, 'What happened?' … I'm not a moderation person, and I don't think that everyone has to be [expletive] sober. I think everyone has to do what is best for them."

In a break from most medical thinking on alcohol addiction, Cyrus, calling herself "very disciplined," contended, "It's pretty easy for me to be sober or in and out of sobriety because it's, like, the day I don't want to [expletive] do it anymore, I don't." Parsing the issue semantically, she said that, "I don't have a problem with drinking. I have a problem with the decisions I make once I go past that level of [intoxication, because] I become very impulsive."

Earlier in the conversation she had said the impetus for becoming sober was her imminent 28th birthday, and the compelling coincidence that such important musical figures as Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones and bluesman Robert Johnson each died at 27, most of them from substance abuse. "Twenty-seven was a year that I really had to protect myself," Cyrus said. "That actually really made me want to get sober because we've lost so many icons at 27. It's a very pivotal time."

In addition to the interview, Monday brought a spate of birthday wishes for the pop star, including from Billy Joel. "Happy Birthday @mileycyrus!" he tweeted, posting two images from her guest appearance at his October 1, 2017, Madison Square Garden concert — performing together in one shot, and both together with fellow guest Paul Simon in another.