Miley Cyrus isn't holding anything back.
Before she hits the stage as host at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, the "Wrecking Ball" singer is getting candid about her racy 2013 performance with Robin Thicke and Nicki Minaj's infamous Twitter feud.
"Everything I've ever done has been true to me at that minute," she told the New York Times of her raunchy on-stage antics. "Even down to [Hannah Montana] — when I started I was 12 years old, and that was like a dream to me. So that was my truth at that moment."
The former child star was slammed by critics who said her gyrating dance moves and sexual gestures with a foam finger were inappropriate, but she stands behind her behavior.
"People around me really judged me. People that I really loved and thought were my friends judged me for it," Cyrus revealed. "They were like, 'You were on drugs when you did that performance.' I did nothing! I still don't get it."
"I still love it. But I now watch it, and I see someone that isn't me now," she declared. "I knew who I was, and I knew the power that I held, but I don't think I realized my full power until that show. I didn't realize I could make such a big reaction. I didn't think that many people would care."
"When you look at it now, it looks like I'm playing hopscotch," she told the publication. "Compared to what I do now, it looks like nothing. I can't believe that was a big deal. It wasn't shocking at all."
She adds that Robin Thicke knew exactly what she would be doing, despite rumors to the contrary.
"He was actually the one that approved my outfit, so I thought that was very funny," Cyrus added. "He wanted me as naked as possible, because that's how his video was. It was very much a collaboration. My part — 'We Can't Stop' — was all me. But when it went into 'Blurred Lines,' that was his performance."
The 22-year-old star also was put in the hot seat over Nicki Minaj's VMAs tweets, after she blasted MTV and, ultimately Taylor Swift, when "Anaconda" didn't get a nom for Video of the Year.
"She was saying that everyone was white and blonde that got nominated, I heard?," she says. "I don't respect your statement because of the anger that came with it. And it's not anger like, 'Guys, I'm frustrated about some things that are a bigger issue.' You made it about you. Not to sound like a bitch, but that's like, 'Eh, I didn't get my V.M.A.' ... If you want to make it about race, there's a way you could do that. But don't make it just about yourself."
While Cyrus initially stayed out of the feud, she just might have ignited one of her own!
"What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It's not very polite. I think there's a way you speak to people with openness and love," she declared. "You don't have to start this pop star against pop star war. It became Nicki Minaj and Taylor in a fight, so now the story isn't even on what you wanted it to be about."
Check back with toofab on Sunday night to see what Miley has in store for the MTV VMAs -- you don't want to miss this!
