The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne Talks Unlikely Fwendship With Miley Cyrus

When Miley Cyrus suddenly started hanging out with Oklahoma eccentrics the Flaming Lips — singing with them onstage at the Staples Center and the Billboard Awards, getting matching tattoos with frontman/shaman Wayne Coyne, and covering "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" on the Lips' new track-by-track Sgt. Pepper tribute, With a Little Help From My Fwends — fans of both artists were understandably shocked. Some were probably even outraged, Wayne admits.

"'Miley Cyrus doing Beatles songs, oh my God… and you're responsible, Wayne! You let her do it! I'll kill you!'" Wayne jokes to Yahoo Music, imitating the haters, all while wearing a furry neon dinosaur hoodie that looks like it could've been borrowed from Miley's closet.

While the bond between the 21-year-old former Disney princess and the 53-year-old psychedelic rock wizard may be surprising, the two might actually be musical soulmates. Wayne even believes that their fwendship could lure some of Miley's "Smilers" to the Lips' wild and wacky world.

Miley Cyrus and Wayne Coyne together onstage in L.A. (photo: Rolling Stone)
Miley Cyrus and Wayne Coyne together onstage in L.A. (photo: Rolling Stone)

"These 14-year-old girls who only know who Miley Cyrus is will probably listen to [With a Little Help From My Fwends] and hear music that's really pretty bizarre," Wayne says. "And they won't know it's bizarre, because they're young and their minds are open to everything. To me that's a very thrilling area, 'cause they're going to be infected with all this stuff that they may have never, ever heard before."

Wayne also claims that most Lips fans are actually Miley supporters — secret Smilers, if you will. "I can see why people might go, 'Oh, that's weird,' but most of the very cool Flaming Lips fans secretly already love her, 'cause she's so crazy," he laughs. "That's how we feel about her. We already loved her, and now that we know her, it's like, 'Oh my God, she's crazier than we even knew.' I talk to people all the time that are like, 'I love both you guys.' I think that world is already here."

In his usual garrulous and gregarious manner, Wayne lay out his theory as to why some older fans — i.e., Flaming Lips fans — might have a problem with the band's many Miley collaborations.

"There's this time when you're young, from the time you're 19 to 24, when the world is yours. Everybody else gets out of the way and says, 'This is your time.' You're the center of attention. All music, all culture, all fashion, and everything cool is there to please you," he begins. "And then suddenly you're 25, or 26, or 29, or almost 30 — and you realize that there's younger people, and [pop culture isn't] trying to appeal to your taste anymore. And I think that's probably where most of that [backlash] is coming from.

"It's people starting to feel like, 'I can't like Miley Cyrus… if I'm 30 and I like Miley Cyrus, I'm going to look like… you know, my little sister likes her!" So I can see why that's a dilemma for them: 'My music is supposed to represent how cool I am. But I like Miley Cyrus and I like Radiohead. F---, what now?'"

With a Little Help From My Fwends isn't the first time that the Flaming Lips have risked backlash in another way, by boldly taking on a sacred-cow classic album: Back in 2009, they remade Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon from start to finish. Wayne says tackling the Beatles' 1967 album was harder, though.

"Dark Side of the Moon is strange because it's almost the same song over and over. It all has a similar tone, to where there's not that many songs. I think it's seven songs they actually sing on. There's a couple songs that there's no singing and stuff, there’s a little more freedom to kind of f--- around with it," he explains. "But with Sgt. Pepper, there's a lot of songs. And they're just weird, weird, weird f---ing songs."

Proceeds from sales of With a Little Help From My Fwends (which also features contributions from My Morning Jacket, J Mascis, Moby, Dr. Dog, Phantogram, Maynard James Keenan, Tegan and Sara, Grace Potter, Foxygen, and others) will go to the Bella Foundation, a charity in the Flaming Lips' hometown of Oklahoma City that provides veterinary care to pet owners in need. The band got the idea after Miley Cyrus's dog Floyd died this past April. Two of Wayne and Miley's above-mentioned matching tattoos are actually of the beloved late pooch.

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