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

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

While appearing on comedian Chelsea Handler’s Dear Chelsea podcast in an episode released Thursday, 34-year-old King recalled taking “one shot too many” before her performance, which prompted the legendary country venue to post on social media apologizing to attendees for King’s behavior.

“I did a big no-no,” King said, of the “mortifying” event, explaining that she hadn’t spoken about it yet partly because she “had to chill.” “I not only cussed onstage, hammered at the Grand Ole Opry, but it was Dolly Parton’s birthday and the Opry was doing a Dolly Parton tribute.”

She said that she suffers from PTSD and that she hadn’t eaten or slept in days when the show rolled around. “I was a shell of myself,” she said. She said she was asked at the last minute to sub in for another performer at the two shows, singing “Jolene,” and that she nailed the first performance. At the night’s second showing, however, things went differently.

“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 know now what I said. I said, ‘I’m Elle King, and I’m fucking hammered.’ 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. Everywhere.”

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

“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,” King added. “That’s the stuff that I’ve received that I’ll never forget, ever, because I wanted to fucking die.”

Parton, in February, called King “a great girl” in an interview with Extra TV. “She’s been going through a lot of hard things lately and she just had too much to drink, so let’s just forgive that and forget it and move on ’cause she felt worse than anybody ever could,” Parton said.

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

“Regardless of what I was doing in my life and what was happening to me—that I don’t feel like I owe to anybody in the fucking world to try and explain—I also don’t think that it does excuse the fact that maybe I shouldn’t have fucking been drinking,” King said.

“This is like a sacred stage and I fucked up,” she added. “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.”