Elle King Reflects on Drunken Opry Set, Says She Was Experiencing a ‘High Level of Pain’

Elle King is opening up about her controversial performance on the Grand Ole Opry stage in January.

The star sat down with Kaitlyn Bristowe for her Off the Vine podcast, where she opened up about the difficulties that she was going through, and noted that she “went to a different type of therapeutic program” after the incident.

“I was very sad, and nobody really knows what I was what I was going through behind closed doors,” King explained. “And I just took that as, if it wasn’t this, it’s gonna be something else.”

During the Grand Ole Opry’s tribute concert for Dolly Parton’s 78th earlier this year, King appeared on stage, where she declared that she was “f–king hammered” while trying to cover Parton’s song “Marry Me.” When she struggled to remember the lyrics, King sang, “I don’t give a s–t” and “I don’t know they lyrics to these things in this f–king town… Don’t tell Dolly ’cause it’s her birthday.”

She continued that she’s a “different person” now. “I’ve had to heal and deal and go through things and, someone said to me, I think you might find a silver lining or something good that comes out of your experience with that,” she shared. “Ultimately, I couldn’t go on living my life or even staying in the situation that I had been going through. I couldn’t continue to be existing in that high level of pain that I was going through at the time.”

Following King’s performance, the Grand Ole Opry issued an apology via X, responding to one disgruntled attendee’s comment, and saying, “We deeply regret and apologize for the language that was used during last night’s second Opry performance.”

Parton quickly forgave King and offered empathy. In an interview with Extra, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee shared. “Elle is a really great artist. She’s a great girl. She’s been going through a lot of hard things lately, and she just had a little too much to drink.”