Elle King ‘Hadn’t Eaten’ Or ‘Slept In Days’ Before Drunken Dolly Parton Tribute

Elle King is finally coming clean about what happened during her Grand Ole Pry performance earlier this year. In January, King performed a tribute to Dolly Parton during a celebratory show for the icon’s 78th birthday. Unfortunately, King was visibly drunk during her segment, resulting in backlash from disappointed fans. Although Parton has long moved on from the embarrassing incident, the younger singer, for the first time, gave a detailed explanation of what happened.

Elle King Blames PTSD For Controversial Dolly Parton Tribute

King recently told her side of the story on Chelsea Handler’s podcast Dear Chelsea. The 34-year-old revealed she was dealing with some issues behind the scenes. “I had been going through something very heavy and traumatic in my life at the time,” King said on the podcast. “That day was a really big day, dealing with what I was going through and am still going through, and I suffer from severe PTSD.”

The Jersey Giant songstress stated she was so stressed that she hadn’t “eaten” or “slept in days.” Unfortunately, when the big day arrived, an “overwhelmed” King couldn’t withstand the pressure. Although she only agreed to fill in for the headliner last minute, King, who went up on stage twice, totally fumbled her second act. Her speech was slurred, and she forgot the words to Parton’s 2001 hit song, Marry Me. King further intensified the awkwardness when she told the crowd, “You ain’t getting your money back.”

Recalling the mortifying experience, a somber King admitted she “took one shot too many” before going up the second time.

“I’m just not there in my body. I’m not there. I don’t even remember what I said. I got the curtain dropped on me, and I totally disassociated, and I just cut to the dressing room: me on the floor just sobbing, like, ‘What have I done?'”

Elle King

What Did Dolly Parton Say About Elle King’s Tribute?

Although King faced heavy criticism from fans and even one of the singer’s siblings, Parton showed her nothing but grace. A month after the incident, the Jolene singer showed love to King during an interview with Extra.

“Elle is really a great artist. She’s a great girl, and she’s been going through a lot of hard things lately. She just had a little too much to drink.”

Dolly Parton

The country music legend continued, encouraging fans to “just forgive that and forget it.” “She [Elle King] felt worse than anyone ever could,” Parton concluded.