Elle King ‘mortified’ about her drunken performance at Dolly Parton tribute concert

(Gray News) - Musician Elle King is opening up about her reported drunken performance at Dolly Parton’s tribute at the Grand Ole Opry in January.

People reports King, 34, recently spoke to comedian Chelsea Handler on the “Dear Chelsea” podcast about what happened that night.

Concertgoers at the Grand Ole Opry shared videos from that evening showing King going through a profanity-filled performance at the tribute event that was being held in honor of Parton’s 78th birthday.

“Hi, my name is Elle King. I’m f***king hammered,” the 34-year-old singer could be heard telling the audience.

The admission came after she reportedly slurred her way through Parton’s song “Marry Me.”

King told Handler that she hadn’t spoken too much about that night since because she had to “just chill” as it was a “big deal.”

“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,” King shared.

According to People, King explained that she wasn’t supposed to perform that night, but another headliner backed out just hours before the show and then she was asked to perform.

“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 … 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. I was mortified.”

King said she wrote an apology letter to the Grand Ole Opry and Parton.

According to King, Parton called her a couple of days after the event and gave her kind words while saying she wasn’t mad at her.

In February, Parton asked her fans to go easy on King.

“Elle is really a great artist, she’s a great girl, and she’s been going through a lot of hard things lately. And she just had a little too much to drink,” Parton said in an interview with Extra. “So, let’s just forgive that and forget it and move on, because she [King] felt worse than anybody ever could.”

King also shared a public apology on Instagram about two months after the performance.

King acknowledged that the incident has motivated her to make changes in her life, which has led her to “becoming a stronger person” while no longer drinking before performing.

Copyright 2024 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.