Twelve years after her last proper tour, Miley Cyrus made a grand return to the live stage over the weekend at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl to promote her latest album, Bass Persuades. The shows on Friday and last night (Oct. 18) featured the same 18-song set list, highlighted by guest appearances from the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne on that band’s “Do You Realize ??” and “Karen Don’t Be So Sad” from the Lips-powered 2015 album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz.
Opening night also offered eight live debuts, six of which were from Bass Persuades, including “Different Religion” with opening act Model/Actriz and “Let’s Get Married” with Maxx Morando. Cyrus also performed “Jolene” in tribute to her late godmother Dolly Parton at both shows, telling the audience on Friday, “Me and Dolly, we are eternal. Nothing in this life could ever tear us apart. And I’m going to see her again, and I can’t fucking wait because I miss her.”
On Sunday, Cyrus spoke at length about the online reaction to Friday’s performance, her first in four years, including criticism that she didn’t sing all the words live of the title cut from Bass Persuades. “I’ve never heard that I don’t put my heart into something,” she said from the stage. “I don’t know if any of you heard that … that somebody was doing commentary to get clickbait on their video talking about my show on Friday night, but I’m a lot of things and we’re not even going to entertain that.”
“And the controversy, it used to be a lot of fun,” she continued. “It still can be. I can be pretty melted. I love that about me. I actually used to live my life pretty hard. Because life’s hard, so I thought I had to get hard. But, you know, I didn’t enjoy my life as much when I was living hard. I love pouring myself into something.”
Cyrus admitted “it is hard for me to stand up here and do this show. It does not come as natural as it once did to be before. Because, like all of us, we change, we evolve, we grow and we find what gets to come with us [and] what continues to fit.”
She also thanked the crowd for making “the experience” of playing live again possible, noting it’s “the only way I get to test my personal boundaries, my limits, what I think I can do. I can take a lot, but one thing I will not stand is any question about where my heart is when I’m on the stage. Not one. I am fully present.”
As for the “Bass Persuades” hiccup, she said sarcastically, “oh, I forgot. I’m supposed to sing every fucking word.”
Bass Persuades debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last month and is the follow-up to 2025’s Something Beautiful. Cyrus has no further live dates on her calendar at present.
