Elle King has finally spoken out about her drunken performance at the Grand Ole Opry during a Dolly Parton birthday tribute celebration in January. The country singer, 34, admitted that she was “mortified” by the performance and the video that went viral during an appearance on Chelsea Handler’s Dear Chelsea podcast on Thursday, May 16. She also explained the situation and why she ended up performing that night.
Back in January, Elle went viral for a video of her not knowing the words to Dolly’s song “Marry Me” at a tribute concert for the country icon’s 78th birthday. While forgetting the lyrics, Elle began swearing, and after the song, she declared, “Hi, my name is Elle King. I’m f**king hammered.” Following the performance, the Grand Ole Opry released a statement apologizing for the performance on social media.
Elle shared that she had a “big no, no” by “cussing” on stage at the tribute show on the podcast. The “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” singer shared that she had been having a rough day before the concert. “I had been going through something very heavy and traumatic in my life at the time, and that day was a really big day dealing with what I was going through — and then I’m still going through — and I suffer from like, severe PTSD,” she said, per People.
Elle claimed that the headliner who had originally been scheduled backed out of the show just hours before, and she was asked to take their slot. She said that she had drank too much and the show was a blur. “I take one shot too many and I’m just not there in my body. I’m not there. I don’t remember it,” she said. “I got the curtain dropped on me. I just get like flashes of this. I was totally, 100% disassociated. I just cut to the dressing room, me on the floor just sobbing, ‘What have I done?’ And then the next day it was like everywhere.”
Elle revealed that she hand-wrote letters apologizing to the Opry and to Dolly, and she said that the “Jolene” singer gave her a call afterward. “She just gave me really kind words and told me, ‘Well, Dolly’s not mad at you, why should the world be?’ [She] made me laugh. That’s the kindness from women,” she said.
Ultimately, the singer did offer an apology to any concertgoers who she let down. “For all the people who are asking for an apology from me, hey, if you were there that night and I didn’t get a chance to say I’m sorry to you, I apologize,” she said.
Weeks after the performance, Dolly also defended Elle in an interview with Extra. “She’s been going through a lot of hard things lately,” she said. “She just had a little too much to drink. So let’s just forgive that and forget it and move on, because she felt worse than anybody ever could.”