Elle King Breaks Silence on Grand Ole Opry Dolly Parton Tribute Performance “Hammered”

Country singer Elle King has spoken out for the first time about her “hammered” performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, during which she cursed and blurred her way through a performance of “Marry Me” during a birthday tribute concert at Dolly PartonIt’s honor.

While appearing on the comedian Chelsea managerIt is Dear Chelsea, podcast in an episode released Thursday, King, 34, recalled taking “one shot too many” before his performance, prompting the legendary country venue to post an apology on social media to attendees for King’s behavior .

“I did a big no-no,” King said of the “mortifying” event, explaining that she hadn’t yet spoken about it in part because she “had to relax.” “Not only did I swear on stage, I hammered the Grand Ole Opry, but it was Dolly Parton’s birthday and the Opry was doing a tribute to Dolly Parton.”

She said she suffered from PTSD and hadn’t eaten or slept since the days the show started. “I was a shell of myself,” she says. She said she was asked at the last minute to fill in for another performer at both shows, singing “Jolene,” and was successful in the first performance. However, during the second performance of the evening, things went differently.

“I take one photo too many and I’m just not there in my body. I am not here. I don’t remember,” she said. “I know now what I said. I said, ‘My name is Elle King and I’m fucking hammered.’ I pulled the curtain down on me. I just got flashes of it. I was totally, 100% dissociated. I just went to the locker room, me on the floor sobbing: “What am I. ‘did?’ And then the next day, it was like everywhere. Everywhere.”

She said she hand-wrote apology letters to Parton and the venue, and that Parton, “proof that angels exist,” called her a few days later.

“She just gave me some really kind words and said, ‘Well, Dolly’s not mad at you, why should the world be?’ (She) made me laugh. It’s the kindness of women,” King added. “That’s what I got and what I’ll never forget, because I wanted to fucking die.”

Parton, in February, called King a “great girl” in an interview with Additional television. “She’s been going through a lot of tough things lately and she just had too much to drink, so let’s forgive that, forget about it and move on because she felt worse than anyone else,” Parton said.

King said on Handler’s podcast that she no longer drinks before performing, following the incident. She also wondered if “if I had a dick, things would be different” in terms of public response.

“Regardless of what I was doing in my life and what was happening to me – and I don’t feel like I owe it to anyone in the world to try to explain it – I don’t think nor does it excuse the fact that maybe I shouldn’t have been fucking drinking,” King said.

“It’s like a sacred scene and I fucked up,” she added. “For all the people asking me for an apology, hey, if you were there that night and I didn’t have a chance to say that I’m sorry to you, I apologize.