In an alternate universe, Miley Cyrus‘ iconic Bangerz era would’ve been made complete with a wild music video starring Madonna, Nelly and more superstars popping wheelies and wrestling in the mud. Unfortunately, we do not live in that universe.
In an interview on the Every Single Album podcast posted Thursday (June 5), the “Flowers” singer revealed that she had been dead set on rounding up a star-studded group of friends to shoot a raucous visual for “4×4,” a song on her smash-hit 2013 album that ultimately never became a single. “I had everyone already lined up,” Cyrus said. “Nelly … Madonna was down to do the video, Miranda Cosgrove.”
“This was before Taylor [Swift] had a lot of famous people in her crew,” she continued, laughing. “I was friends with famous people first. I wanted to do that. I had a f–king squad, and my squad was very, very cool.”
Cyrus claimed the idea was eventually shut down by RCA, her label at the time, whom she quipped didn’t want her “talking about a pit bull [and] piss” in a song they’d be promoting. “Madonna was down to mud wrestle with Miranda Kerr,” the Grammy winner reminisced wistfully. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna get all these girls, all these supermodels, all these Victoria’s Secret models and all of these pop icons to come to my dad’s farm, get in the back of 4x4s, and we’re gonna mud wrestle, and we’re gonna go out and do doughnuts.”
Despite the lack of a “4×4” visual, Bangerz remains one of Cyrus’ most successful albums to date. The LP debuted atop the Billboard 200 and spawned her first-ever No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, “Wrecking Ball,” which was followed closely by “We Can’t Stop” at No. 2.
The “Party in the U.S.A.” artist was signed to RCA for a three-album run, later dropping Younger Now in 2017 and Plastic Hearts in 2020 under the Sony Music imprint. In 2021, she inked a new deal with Columbia Records, through which she just released new album Something Beautiful on May 30.
Later in the podcast episode, Cyrus recalled another time where she and her former label weren’t quite on the same page. According to her, she never would’ve put a certain fellow pop star on “Prisoner,” one of the singles on Plastic Hearts. “No shade to Dua Lipa, it just isn’t cohesive with the album,” Cyrus said frankly.
“She would’ve been much better on something like [2023 LP] Endless Summer Vacation,” the singer continued of Dua Lipa. “She would’ve been great on ‘Wildcard,’ she would’ve been great on any of them — ‘River,’ can you imagine?”
Cyrus added that she thought her team at RCA wasn’t entirely confident in how Plastic Hearts would perform, so they brought in some “medicinal Dua” to give the LP some commercial oomph. “They basically were like, ‘Oh, great, here’s this piece of s–t album she gave us, let’s spray a little Dua Lipa on there,’” Cyrus said, laughing.
Listen to Cyrus’ full interview on Every Single Album below.
