** “Midnight Sky” got a lot of** comparisons to your solo work when Miley released it over the summer. Whose idea was it for the two of you to sing verses from each other’s songs? 

Miley desperately wanted to sing on “Edge of Seventeen.” I said, “Go and knock yourself out. I’ve sung it practically every time I’ve gone onstage since 1981, so you go ahead.” I picked out the parts I wanted to sing on her song, and I even got to ad-lib, [sings] “In the midnight, in the midnight sky…” a few times at the end. I thought she’d probably take it off, but she didn’t. [Imitates Cyrus’s Southern accent] “I love it, it’s my favorite part!”

Are you open to doing an original song together? 

After I told her a couple things that I thought we should do on this song, I said, “You know Miley, I just wanted to say that I’m actually also a producer”—I never really think of myself as a producer, but I am—” and I would really love to work with you on something brand new. Just you and me.” She was just knocked out. She said she’d love to do that so much. I’m not sure how old she is—26? 

Google says 27. 

[Gasps] The famous 27. That’s an important year. It’s when I joined Fleetwood Mac—well, somewhere between 27 and 72. There’s a meeting of the minds where she becomes 20 years older and I become 20 years younger. That’s what I find with all these younger singers that I have relationships with. We meet in the middle, and that’s how we relate to each other: Miley gets older for me, and I get younger for her. It’s the same with Harry. 

Did you get a chance to look through Harry’s cover story yet?  

Right before I called you, I sat here and looked at all the pictures on my new iPad. What can I say? That’s my Harry. I think the thing that’s most wonderful about him—and I’ve told him this, and sometimes I think he takes it the wrong way—is that he’s such a kooky guy. He’s the type of person you’d wanna live next door to. He’d look out the window, see you having a hard time planting flowers, and rush out asking, “Can I help you with those roses?” “Sure, but you are Harry Styles, right?” That’s who he is. 

I really only know him to a certain extent, but I have gotten to experience some big moments in his life, like when he released his first solo record at the Troubadour. I always think of Tom Petty saying, “So, you wanna be a rock star or you wanna be a pop star?” It’s two completely different things, and he really could have gone pop like his friend Zayn [Malik]. I was sorry that Zayn didn’t keep going more because I thought he was really good. But he took the pop route, which I think was right for him. Harry could’ve lost a lot of fans doing rock and roll, but he didn’t. Harry did a long tour with that first record and said, “I’m a different person now. I have a full-on rock band, and this is what I’m gonna do.” With many of my records, I’ll stuff down peoples’ throats until they like it, and that’s exactly what he did. Then he went away and wrote Fine Line, one of my favorite records.