Elle King opens up about drunken Dolly Parton tribute performance: 'I can learn from my mistakes'

“This is a sacred stage, and I f---ed up,” the “Ex’s & Oh’s” singer said.

Elle King learned some hard lessons from her controversial Dolly Parton tribute performance.

The “Ex’s & Oh’s” singer's drunken set at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on January 19 was part of an event intended to celebrate Parton’s 78th birthday, but went far off the rails and was incredibly embarrassing, she explained to Chelsea Handler on the Dear Chelsea podcast.

“I did a big no-no,” King said on the podcast. “I not only cussed on stage, hammered at the Grand Ole Opry, but it was Dolly Parton's birthday, and it was the Opry was doing a Dolly Parton tribute. I haven't spoken about it because, one, I had to just chill. It was a big deal.”

During the bumbled performance, King appeared to forget the words to Parton’s 2001 hit “Marry Me,” and told the audience, “Holy s---... I’m not even gonna f---ing lie, y’all bought tickets for this s---? You ain’t getting your money back. I’ll tell you one thing more: Hi, my name is Elle King, and I’m f---ing hammered.’”

King went on to explain that difficulties in her personal life led her to drink too much before the performance.

“I had been going through something very heavy and traumatic in my life at the time, and that day was a really big day dealing with what I was going through and that I'm still going through,” she said. “And I suffer from severe PTSD; I take one shot too many, and I'm just not there in my body, I'm not there. I don't remember it. All I remember — I don't even remember what I said. I know now what I said. I said, ‘I'm Elle King, and I'm f---ing hammered,’ and I got the curtain dropped on me and then — I just get like flashes of this, and I was totally 100 percent disassociated — and I just cut to the dressing room, me on the floor just sobbing, like, ‘What have I done?’”

Related: Elle King concert postponed amid backlash to her 'hammered' Dolly Parton tribute

King said that she was deeply troubled by the incident, but forgiveness from a key figure helped ease her state of mind.

“I was mortified, and I hand-wrote an apology letter to the Opry, and I hand-wrote an apology letter to Dolly,” she said. “And Dolly called me a couple days later, and she's literally proof that angels exist. She just gave me really kind words and told me, ‘Well, Dolly's not mad at you, why should the world be?’ and made me laugh. That's the kindness from women, you know? That's the stuff that I've received that I'll never forget, ever. Because I wanted to f---ing die, and I don't know, I had to remove myself from the population for a while because it just...it wasn't getting any better.”

Parton publicly acknowledged the incident in February in an interview with Extra.

"Elle is really a great artist," Parton said. "She's a great girl, and she's been going through a lot of hard things lately. 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 anybody ever could."

King, who is the daughter of former Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider, went on to wonder if her on-stage meltdown would have been viewed differently if she was a man.

“If I had a dick, would it be different? I don't know,” she said. “But I also didn't want to even put any energy into that because one, regardless of what I was doing in my life and what was happening to me, that I don't feel like I owe to anybody in the f---ing world to try and explain.”

Related: Joy Behar says Dolly Parton's 'Jolene' is 'anti-feminist,' approves Beyoncé's version

King ultimately took responsibility for her actions.

“I also don't think that it does excuse the fact that maybe I shouldn't have f---ing been drinking,” she said. “This is a sacred stage, and I f---ed up. And so for all the people who are asking for an apology from me, hey, if you were there that night and I didn't get a chance to say I'm sorry to you, I apologize.”

The musician also said that she’s using the incident as a launchpad for personal growth.

“That was me hitting a massive brick wall, and I made changes in my life, and I feel like I'm becoming a stronger person because of it,” she explained. “I'm not grateful for it, but at the same time, I can find a silver lining in literally anything, and I'm going to choose to use this as a tool to not defeat me, but to make me hopefully a better person, and I can learn from my mistakes. Now, I don't drink before I go up and sing. And they're the best shows I've ever played. And I'm proud to say that, you know.”

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King had previously addressed the Grand Ole Opry controversy on social media in March.

“To everyone sending me love because I’m human and already talked to Dolly, I love you. To everyone who told me to k*ll myself, I love you too,” she wrote in an Instagram video. She captioned the post, “​​Oh no, was my human showing?” with the hashtag WWDD — presumably “What Would Dolly Do?”

Listen to the full conversation between King and Handler above.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.