Billy Ray Cyrus doesn't seem to care what the world has to say about Miley and thinks she has 'risen to a whole new level' since her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards last month.
The 52-year-old country singer is proud of his daughter despite the reaction the media and the world had to all her twerking and licking, and thinks the former Hannah Montana star is just trying to leave her Disney image behind.
Talking on 'Piers Morgan Tonight' on US TV's CNN yesterday, Billy Ray was unshaken and relaxed as Morgan quizzed him about his feelings on the intense media attention she's getting, saying: 'Miley's smart enough to know that to come out of the shadows of 'Hannah Montana,' it really takes something extremely drastic, which when you go to that level, it creates passion, and passion is either love or hate. But there's no middle of the road for passion. She has risen to a whole new level. I thought I had seen it all - until these last couple of weeks.'
'She's an artist. She's real. I think that what's happened over the years, Miley has been reinventing her sound. She's evolving as an artist herself. I think that all of what everyone is calling controversy now, that's still my Miley.'