Noah Cyrus, singer and younger sister to Miley Cyrus, opened up in a recent interview with Rolling Stone about how she was introduced to Xanax at 18. She also detailed the way her road to recovery after becoming briefly addicted influenced her new music.
During the interview, the 22-year-old Cyrus revealed she was given the drug by her then-boyfriend and took it because she wanted to fit in.
“My boyfriend at the time, when I was 18, was the first person that gave me a Xanax, and it became a way for us to bond,” she said. “I think I wanted to fit in with him. I wanted to be what he wanted and what he thought was cool and what I thought everybody was doing. Once I felt that it was possible to silence things out for a second and numb your pain, it was over.”
While Cyrus never mentions the former boyfriend by name, it was possibly Lil Xan, whom she was dating at the time. Cyrus went on to explain a situation where she almost passed out during an interview that never aired, and how being hooked on Xanax made her feel like she was in a “bottomless pit.” She later said it wasn’t until her grandmother passed away in 2020 that she decided to seek help.
“I was sitting alone, and I was scared, and I realized that all the people that I love and all the people that I need, I was the one pushing them away,” she added.
Noah Cyrus’ debut album The Hardest Part is due Sept. 16 and is heavily influenced by these experiences and her road to recovery.
“I’m not trying to be, like, any spokesperson for recovery or anything like that. I, myself, am just going through it and figuring it out,” she told RS. “I wake up in the mornings, and I’m able to look in a mirror and go on about my day without hating myself. I’m able to comfort myself and nurture myself.”
Her recent single “Mr. Percocet” also illustrates her addiction and her “personal experience with the confusion and insecurities that arise in a relationship when substance abuse is involved.”
“This song is written about my personal experience with the confusion and insecurities that arise in a relationship when substance abuse is involved,” she said. “It causes such manic behavioral changes that you can lose sight of yourself and who you fell in love with.”
