It’s not just the tweens who love Miley Cyrus: The Disney channel star has a fan in Dolly Parton. “That little Miley Cyrus … she’s like a little Elvis,” the country luminary says in a new interview with AOL Music. “The kids love her because she’s Hannah Montana, but what people don’t realize about her is she is such a fantastic singer and songwriter. She writes songs like she’s 40 years old! She’s really deep.

“And I think that she’s gonna have a big career after that show is off the air,” Parton continues. “I know I’m partial, because she’s my goddaughter. But I’m amazed at the talent that child has and the effect she has on people.”

And Parton, 62, who released her latest album Backwoods Barbie on Feb. 26, is clamoring for a little attention – specifically radio play – herself. “Get Dolly Parton back on the radio! Get me back on mainstream,” she says, when asked what she would change about the music industry. Continues the singer, laughing: “Stop this attitude that older people ain’t any good anymore! We’re as good as we ever were – if we ever were any good.”

We saw on Twitter that Miley Cyrus dared you to add crazy words into interviews – can you confirm you won’t do this today?!
[Laughs] “Yeah, I’m not gonna do that.”

You and Miley have more of a fiery relationship than the one you have with Selena – do you argue like sisters?
“Yeah definitely, she’s like a sister to me and she’s definitely my best friend.”

You’ve said Selena was the only friend who was really there for you when you were in rehab – has your friendship strengthened?
“Definitely, but other people were there for me too – Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, I had other people there for me, but I feel it definitely strengthened our friendship.”

Miley Cyrus Glamour article: Imagine finding someone you love more than anything in the world, who you would risk your life for but couldn’t marry. And you couldn’t have that special day the way your friends do—you know, wear the ring on your finger and have it mean the same thing as everybody else. Just put yourself in that person’s shoes. It makes me feel sick to my stomach.

When I shared a picture of my tattoo on my Twitter page and said, “All LOVE is equal,” a lot of people mocked me—they said, “What happened to you? You used to be a Christian girl!” And I said, “Well, if you were a true Christian, you would have your facts straight. Christianity is about love.” The debate resulted in a lot of threats and hate mail to people who agreed and disagreed with me. At one point I had to say, “Dude, everyone lay off.” Can’t people have friendly debates about sensitive topics without it turning into unnecessary threats?

I believe every American should be allowed the same rights and civil liberties. Without legalized same-sex marriage, most of the time you cannot share the same health benefits, you are not considered next of kin and you are not granted the same securities as a heterosexual couple.