Dolly Parton Reacts to Elle King’s Drunk Performance: ‘Forgive it and Forget It’

Dolly Parton trashed Elle King’s drunken performance at the Grand Ole Opry during her 78th birthday celebration in Nashville, Tennessee, last month.

“She’s really a great artist, she’s a great girl,” the “Jolene” singer told Extra TV in an interview published Friday.

“She’s been going through a lot of tough things lately and she just had too much to drink, so let’s forgive that, forget about it and move on because she felt worse than anyone else.”

King stunned fans when she admitted she was “hammered” before performing Parton’s 2001 hit song “Marry Me” at the Country Music Hall on January 19.

The “Ex’s & Oh’s” hitmaker, 34, slurred her words on stage and even messed up the lyrics, singing, “I don’t know the words to this thing in this fucking town.” Don’t tell Dolly because it’s her birthday.

King, who broke the Opry’s no-profanity rule, added, “I’m not even going to lie, did you buy tickets to that shit?” You will not get your money back.

She then attempted to sing one of her hits after warning the audience that she might not even remember her own words.

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“I can barely play another person’s song; let me see if I can play one of mine,” she said.

Following King’s drunken behavior, the room apologized for his foul “language” and disorderly performance.

“We deeply regret and apologize for the language used last night during the second Opry performance,” the Opry tweeted at the time.

Days after the incident, it was revealed that the “America’s Sweetheart” singer had suddenly postponed her concert in Fort Worth, Texas, to September.

However, she is expected to return to the stage in March at the Extra Innings festival.

King has previously spoken about his drinking before concerts.

“It’s easier for me to say, ‘Yeah, I want to drink and party and [then] get on stage,’” she told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2022.

“I get nervous before going on stage, [so] I have a few drinks [first]. Drinking makes me less nervous about hitting notes when I sing. If I don’t do them, it won’t sting as much.

She admitted she initially struggled with substance abuse following her split from ex-husband Andrew Ferguson in 2017.

At the time, the singer told People that she “partied so hard to numb her emotions that [she] I couldn’t handle it at that time.

“I realized that this was just prolonging the inevitable confrontation with them. And what you have to do, unfortunately, is just feel them, and that sucks,” she explained.

She added: “I thought by taking drugs it would give me time to feel better. And when that didn’t work, I realized I was in this other cycle and I was creating it myself. And I realized that I needed to eliminate all the darkness from my life.