Elle King Says She Faced “High Level Of Pain” At Controversial Opry Dolly Parton Tribute: “I Couldn’t Go On Living My Life”

Elle King is revisiting her controversial drunken Grand Ole Opry Dolly Parton tribute from earlier this year.

The singer-songwriter opened up about what she was experiencing during the performance in honor of Parton’s 78th birthday celebration. King revealed in a new interview that she sought out intervention following that polemic appearance.

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“After everything that happened in January, I went to a different type of therapeutic program because I was very sad and nobody really knows what I was going through behind closed doors,” King said on the Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe podcast.

She continued, “And I just took that as, A., if it wasn’t this it was going to be something else, and B., I 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, and I’m like I haven’t found it yet motherf***er!

King says that she feels like she’s “a different person,” adding, “I’m still incredibly anxious constantly, but I was before, so at least I’m a little more conscientious of it.”

“Ultimately, like, I couldn’t go on living my life or even staying in the situation that I had been going through,” King said. “I couldn’t continue to be existing in that high level of pain that I was going through at the time.”

Parton was not in attendance at King’s performance earlier this year, but she has come to her defense.

“Elle is really a great artist. She’s a great girl, and she’s been going through a lot of hard things lately,” Parton said in an interview with Extra. “And 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.”

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