The singer's new 'Without You' remix, featuring Cyrus, is out Friday.
The Kid LAROI has been releasing hit after hit, and his latest collaboration with Miley Cyrus is no exception!
ET exclusively spoke with the 17-year-old singer (real name: Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard) via Zoom, where he explained what it was like teaming up with Cyrus for a remix of his 2020 song, "Without You." The remixed track, which Cyrus and LAROI have been teasing on social media, drops Friday.
"I'm happy for people to hear it. It's crazy!" LAROI told ET's Denny Directo. "I grew up with my older cousins watching [Miley's show] Hannah Montana at my auntie's house, so yeah, it's funny. It's fire!"
LAROI revealed that he first met Cyrus through his friend, "Without You" producer Omer Fedi. "They had been working together, and I guess he had told her about me," the Waterloo, Australia, native explained.
"They were in the studio one day and my Jimmy Fallon performance came on TV, and apparently they watched it together. She was like, 'Whoa, this is sick,' and then I guess Omer must have asked her, 'Hey, so would you do a remix?'" he continued. "Then he came to me and was like, 'Hey, she wants to do a remix. Let's do it.' And I was like, 'Yeah, let's do it!'"
As for the advice Cyrus gave LAROI about fame and the music industry? "She just told me stay focused ... and don't get so caught up in all the other extra s**t," he shared. "Just stay focused on the music, and creating the best music possible."
LAROI told ET that he received similar advice from late rapper Juice WRLD, who died in December 2019. The two were close friends and collaborated on songs like "Go" and "Reminds Me of You."
"I think for me it was a lot of private conversations that we had, but he always stressed to me that no matter what happens, be humble, remember where you came from," LAROI said. "And, similar s**t -- just don't get sidetracked with everything else, focus on the creative and being who you really are."
Although LAROI's success is just getting started, he's already worked with a number of artists in the industry. In addition to Cyrus and Juice WRLD, LAROI was featured on Justin Bieber's song, "Unstable," from his new album, Justice, and tapped Machine Gun Kelly to sing a verse on his catchy "F**K YOU, GOODBYE" track.
"As a kid, I was like seven years old, and I had a cousin who was a girl who was obsessed with Justin Bieber. I didn't really know much about who Justin Bieber was or whatever at the time," LAROI recalled. "She dragged me to the movie theater with her to watch the Never Say Never documentary, and I remember watching that and just becoming literally the biggest Justin Bieber fan ever. I was like, 'Wow, this is literally the coolest kid in the entire world.'"
"And I just became a super big fan ... I really looked up to him and thought he was the s**t," he added. "So him reaching out to me and us linking, and then eventually, building a friendship is almost, it's unreal to me. He's great. He always calls me and gives me advice and I can always reach out to him and ask him about certain stuff and talk to him about my feelings and stuff like that. So, that's really cool. He's a really great dude."
As for his new friendship with Machine Gun Kelly, LAROI raved, "That's my boy!" They recently got together at celebrity hot spot Delilah in West Hollywood, California, to celebrate MGK's 31st birthday. Other guests in attendance included Megan Fox, Kourtney Kardashian, Travis Barker, Yungblud and Iann Dior.
"We just turned up, having some fun. Cool and chilling and having a couple of conversations," he shared, adding that MGK and Fox are "100 percent" relationship goals. "They're great. Insane."
That's not all that LAROI's celebrating these days, however. The singer is gearing up for the release of his upcoming debut studio album, a follow-up to his 2020 mixtape, F**k Love.
"I'm ready for people to hear it. It's not done yet, but I'm already ready," he exclaimed. "I've been working really hard on it. It's hard making a full-length thing and making it official, like, this is the one. But I'm trying to be as honest as I can on it -- just give people listening and the fans a real piece of me and what's going on with me and my life right now."
"I feel like it's going to show a side that maybe people haven't heard of me yet," he added. "People haven't heard me do as much. So yeah, I think that's the most exciting part for me, is seeing how people react to that."
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