Inspired

Album: Younger Now (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Miley Cyrus reminiscing about happy childhood memories of spending time with her father, Billy Ray Cyrus. Miley also touches on environmentalism, as she sings about how she wants to save the world including the worldwide death of bees.

    I'm writing down my dreams, all I'd like to see
    Starting with the bees, or else they're gonna die
    There won't be no trees, or air for us to breathe


    During the chorus Miley encourages her fans to make a change and be better versions of themselves

    I know that sounds so strange
    'Cause you've always felt so small, but know you aren't at all
    And I hope you feel inspired
  • Miley took to Instagram to discuss the background to the song, revealing that a conversation with Hillary Clinton about her own father helped inspire the tune. She added that it reminded her of the "valuable lessons" her dad Billy Ray instilled.

    "Never give in… Never Give Up… I'll never forget his favorite saying, 'A trying time is no time to quit trying,'" Miley wrote in her post.
  • Speaking in an interview on the Zach Sang Show, Miley described the song as a "new, older version of 'The Climb.'"
  • Miley first debuted the song in mid-May 2017 at the Robin Hood Benefit show, and a few days later she performed it during her appearance on Good Morning America. The songstress performed the tune for a third time on June 4, 2017 as part of Ariana Grande's One Love Manchester benefit concert to aid victims of the terrorist attack that killed 22 concertgoers.
  • The song was produced by frequent Miley Cyrus collaborator Oren Yoel. He first worked with the singer on the Bangerz track "Adore You" and later produced four tracks from her 2015 project Miley Cyrus And Her Dead Petz.
  • Miley Cyrus told NPR the story of the song:

    "I was sitting in this line of really crazy traffic, and then I realized that I was in the middle of a funeral line. And I was behind a hearse, and all these people - I was looking into their cars, they just looked so devastated and so sad. And because I was sitting, I could really see them in their faces, and it just started making me think about life, made me think about my dad, and made me think about my mom, and all the things that really matter.

    And thinking about how much I have always loved nature; [the song] talks about the bees, and how there might be a day where we won't have bees or blue skies or clear water or fish in the sea because of the way we abuse the planet."
  • Miley recalls happy childhood days with her father Billy Ray Cyrus.

    Thinking about the days coming home with dirty feet
    Or playing with my dad, all day in the creek
    He somehow has a way of knowing what to say
    So when I'm feeling sad, he makes me feel inspired


    She told The Sun: "I don't think anyone else could write that, but me. That's how I feel about the world that we are in. Even the part talking about my dad, no one else knows those memories but me. And that really hits people's hearts, too.

    Singing about family is also really important, and my relationship with my dad has been something that everyone has been so involved in my whole life. Even with the TV show (Cyrus vs Cyrus: Design and Conquer, a reality interior-design program focused around Miley's mother Tish and sister Brandi) getting to know me and my dad as a team and a family, I think people are really happy to be let back into my family."

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