Opinion
The country music legend Dolly Parton is speaking out to defend the singer Elle King after her humiliating drunken Grand Ole Opry incident.
Parton Defends King
While celebrating Parton’s 78th birthday at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville last month, King took the stage to perform the Parton song “Marry Me.” It quickly became apparent that King, 34, did not know all the words to the song, and she even admitted to the audience that she was “f—ing hammered.”
In the weeks since then, King has received tons of backlash for this incident, but Parton is now speaking out to defend the younger singer and to tell her fans that it’s time to let her off the hook.
“Elle is really a great artist,” Parton told Extra. “She’s a great girl, and she’s been going through of hard things lately.”
“She just had a little too much to drink, so let’s just forgive that and forget it and move on, ’cause she felt worse than anyone ever could,” she added.
Check out Parton’s full comments on this in the video below.
Related: Dolly Parton Reveals Why ‘God Didn’t Let’ Her Have Kids
King’s Drunken Grand Ole Opry Performance
People Magazine reported that during the January 19 Grand Ole Opry concert, King was seen having various exchanges with audience members about refunds in TikToks that quickly went viral. She was seemingly singing in gibberish at one point before she improvised her own lines about not knowing the words to “Marry Me.”
“I don’t know the lyrics to these things in this f—ing town,” King sang. “Don’t tell Dolly ’cause it’s her birthday.”
“Everyone’s like, holy s—, we bought tickets to this s—. I’m not even going to lie,” King said after the song while putting her hands in her pockets. “Holy s—. I’m not even going to f—ing lie. Y’all bought tickets for this s—?”
After King told fans that they “ain’t gettin’ your money back,” someone fired back, “I don’t want it.”
“Good, ’cause you ain’t getting it,” King replied.
One audience member claimed that King swore onstage “about 15 times” and “forgot the words to the Dolly song she was supposed to sing.”
“I’ll tell you one thing more. Hi, my name is Elle King and I’m f—ing hammered,” King concluded before mercifully making her exit.
The Grand Ole Opry later issued an apology after one social media user said that King “ruined the night with her horrible, drunk, and profane performance,” calling it “a shame we all had to witness that.”
“Hi Judas, we deeply regret and apologize for the language that was used during last night’s second Opry performance,” the Opry replied.
Find out more about this in the video below.
Related: Dolly Parton Reveals Why Her Husband Of 57 Years Never Attends Events With Her
King Admits To Performing Drunk
King has not commented publicly on this incident, but she has rescheduled some concerts in the weeks since then. She’s previously admitted to performing drunk in the past.
“It’s easier for me to say: ‘Yeah, I want to drink and party and [then] go on stage,’” she said in 2022. “I get nervous before I go on stage, [so] 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.”
Parton is one classy lady, and she always takes the high road, so it comes as no surprise that she’s coming to King’s defense in the wake of this embarrassing incident. Do you agree that it’s time to forgive King and forget her mistake? Let us know in the comments section.
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