Elle King Feels Like a 'Different Person’ After Grand Ole Opry Drama

Elle King Sarah Morris/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Elle King has been on a self-love journey in the months since her Grand Ole Opry scandal.

“After everything that happened in January, I went to a different type of therapeutic program because I was very sad, and nobody really [knew] what I was going through behind closed doors,” the Grammy nominee, 35, revealed on the Tuesday, August 6, episode of Kaitlyn Bristowe’s “Off the Vine” podcast. “I just took that as, ‘A, If it wasn’t this, it was gonna be something else.’ And B, I had to heal and deal and go through things.”

King made headlines earlier this year for performing drunk and yelling profanities during a family-friendly Dolly Parton birthday tribute concert at the famous country music show in Nashville. “You ain’t getting your money back,” she told a heckler in the audience. “I’ll tell you one thing more: ‘Hi, my name is Elle King [and] I’m f—king hammered.”

The Opry issued an apology on her behalf at the time. Replying to a fan’s tweet complaining about King’s behavior, the venue wrote via X, “We deeply regret and apologize for the language that was used during last night’s second Opry performance.”

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King — who postponed a handful of shows in the aftermath — broke her silence on the drama via Instagram in March. “To everyone sending me love because I’m human and already talked to Dolly I love you,” she wrote alongside a workout video. “To everyone who told me to k*ll myself, I love you too.”

On Tuesday’s podcast, King said someone told her she would “find a silver lining or something good” out of her Opry controversy. “I feel like I’m a different person,” she added: “I’m still incredibly anxious, constantly, but I was before. So, at least I’m, like, a little bit more conscientious of it.”

Elle King performs and supports Shania Twain at BST Hyde Park on July 7, 2024 in London, England. Jo Hale/Redferns

Having found “more silver linings in it than not,” King said the experience felt as though Parton, 78, “delivered me this opportunity for growth.”

“I waited to talk about everything until I had better footing because I was not OK. I’m still not OK. I’m a psychopath,” she said. “But I also am coming out as a new person, and I’m still very much me. If anything, I’m much more me now than I even have been in the last 20 years.”

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Parton called King “a doll” in a February interview with E! News before asking fans to be kind to her fellow singer. “I called her and I said, ‘You know, there are many F-words. Why don’t we use the right one? Forgiveness, friends, forget it,” she stated.

Parton continued: “She made a mistake. She feels worse about it than anybody. But she’s a talented girl. She’s going through some hard times, and I think she just had a little too much to drink and then that just hit her. So, we need to get over that because she’s a great artist and a great person.”

Elle King performs at Rock the Ruins in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 11, 2024. ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA

Back in May, King confessed she was “100 percent disassociated” during her Opry performance. “That day was a really big day dealing with what I was going through, and that I’m still going through,” she said on the “Dear Chelsea” podcast. “I suffer from severe PTSD. That day, I hadn’t eaten, I hadn’t slept in days, and I was really overwhelmed. I was like a shell of myself.”

Upon leaving the Opry stage, King said she was “mortified” and was “sobbing” in her dressing room. “I hand-wrote an apology letter to the Opry,” she noted. “And I hand-wrote an apology letter to Dolly.”