Miley Cyrus is working on a Metallica cover album

Sure, Miley Cyrus may come from country royalty (Billy Ray Cyrus is her dad and Dolly Parton is her god-mother!), and she may have parlayed her child-ingénue Hannah Montana rep into a successful pop career, but now the “Midnight Sky” singer is taking that proverbial wrecking ball to her career and starting fresh with a focus on rock and metal. Case in point: she's working on an album devoted entirely to Metallica covers! Fingers crossed it includes “Enter Sandman.”In conversation with fashion designer Rick Owens for Interview Magazine, Miley let it drop that she’s used her time away from touring to work on this labour of love.“We’ve been working on a Metallica cover album and I’m here working on that. We’re so lucky to be able to continue to work on our art during all of this,” she said, referring to the COVID-19 global pandemic. “At first, it felt uninspiring and now I’ve been totally ignited.” We can’t say we’re totally surprised that Miley has gone in this new direction, as this news comes on the heels of her incredible cover of The Cranberries’ hit 1993 banger, “Zombie,” which she performed on the Whiskey A Go Go stage for the Save Our Stages fest. In addition, she is channeling some serious Pat Benatar meets Joan Jett vibes in her “Midnight Sky” music video (that she directed herself, thank you very much).She also shared in the Interview Magazine chat that she’s taken her cues from one of the most iconic punk legends in music.“People ask me who I’ve studied for my movement on stage, and I always say Iggy Pop,” she admitted. Her voice is 100% suited to the harder side of music, as her “Zombie” cover even garnered huge praise from The Cranberries themselves.

We were delighted to hear of Miley Cyrus’ cover of Zombie at the Whisky a Go Go #SOSFEST in LA at the weekend. It’s one of the finest covers of the song that we’ve heard. We think Dolores would be very impressed! Check it out here: https://t.co/ysFxUZLKnl

— The Cranberries (@The_Cranberries) October 19, 2020

While a lot of the conversation between Cyrus and Owens centered on their own musings on travel and art, Miley dropped another tidbit of a more supernatural variety in the interview. She told Owens that not only does she believe in aliens, she's seen one.