The Grand Ole Opry hosted a tribute concert for Dolly Parton last month to celebrate her 78th birthday. Unfortunately the event ended up making headlines for all the wrong reasons. When Elle King took to the stage she forgot lyrics, started swearing (a big no-no at the Opry), and admitted “I’m f–king hammered.” It wasn’t good. The venue took to Twitter to apologize to the concert goers, others piled on to slam Elle online, and yet more chatter poured in to harangue the people slamming Elle. Up until now we haven’t heard a reaction from Dolly. Now that she has chimed in, she’s showing nothing but kindness to Elle, and asking for others to do the same:
Dolly Parton will always love Elle King.
The country music legend recently broke her silence on the “Exes and Ohs” singer’s drunken performance at a star-studded tribute concert held in celebration of Dolly’s 78th birthday.
“Elle is really a great artist, she’s a great girl,” Dolly told ExtraTV in an interview published Feb. 9. “She’s been going through a lot of things lately, and she just had a little too much to drink.”
Encouraging others to lead with kindness as well, she added, “So let’s just forgive that and forget that and move on ‘cause she felt worse than anybody ever could.”
The “Jolene” singer’s understanding words arrived less than a month after Elle confessed to being “f–king hammered” when she messed up the lyrics to Dolly’s 2001 hit “Marry Me” onstage at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. After stumbling her way through some of the lines, the 34-year-old proceeded to sing, “I don’t know the lyrics to this thing in this f–king town/ Don’t tell Dolly ‘cause it’s her birthday.”
Elle later quipped, “I’m not even gonna f–king lie, you bought tickets for this s–t? You ain’t getting your money back.”
In the aftermath of her concert blunder, the iconic country music hall — which operates on a strict no-profanity rule — issued an apology on X, expressing “deep regret” for “the language that was used” during the “America’s Sweetheart” singer’s Jan. 19 performance.
Elle — who has yet to publicly comment on the incident but did postpone a series of shows six days later — has previously spoken about her complicated relationship with alcohol.
“I get nervous before I go on stage,” she told the San Diego Union-Tribune in February 2022. “I have couple of drinks [first]. Drinking makes me less nervous about hitting the notes when I sing. If I don’t make them, it won’t sting as much.”
There’s no sugarcoating that this was a low moment for Elle King. In a way, though, you could say she is very lucky it happened at an event for Dolly Parton. Not because Dolly deserves it, not that at all! But because of how gracious and encouraging a spirit Dolly is. She was generous to Jessica Simpson after Jessica stumbled while performing “9 to 5” at the Kennedy Center Honors, so it’s no surprise she’s being just as kind to Elle. As to that pre-show ritual Elle described, of drinking to subdue her nerves, that system cannot hold. I hope she is taking time now to seek out new methods of coping that are supportive instead of self-destructive. I bet Dolly herself would happily speak with Elle — without being preachy! — about sustaining a career in their industry and being good to yourself. Even I would wake up at 3-7am for that conversation with Dolly. (Ok fine, I’d probably just stay up from the night before. And show up with boxes of Dolly’s Duncan Hines cakes to bake. You get the point.)
Photos credit: Tina Rowden/Netflix, Rachpoot/BauerGriffin/INSTARimages, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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