Singer Elle King reveals sad truth behind infamous onstage meltdown

Singer Elle King had a “career-ending” meltdown onstage earlier this year. Now, the young star reveals what was really going on.

Elle King during the incident.

A “mortified” Elle King revealed her drunken tribute performance to Dolly Parton was due to a “traumatic” incident that she is “still going through.”

“I did a big no-no. I not only cussed onstage, hammered at the Grand Ole Opry, but it was Dolly Parton’s birthday, and the Opry was doing a Dolly Parton tribute,” King explained on Chelsea Handler’s “Dear Chelsea” podcast this week.

“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 — and I suffer from, like, severe PTSD.”

King, 34, did not share what exactly she had been going through at the time but admitted she had not eaten or slept in “days,” which made her feel like “a shell of” herself. She also revealed she was not originally slated to perform but stepped up after the headliner “backed out, like, three hours before.”

Elle King during the incident.

“I take one shot too many, and I’m just not there in my body. I’m not there. I don’t remember it,” she told Handler. “I know now what I said. I said, ‘I’m Elle King, and I’m f**king hammered.’ I got the curtain dropped on me.”

The Ex’s & Oh’s singer claimed she had no recollection of what she had said onstage because she had been “totally, 100% dissociated.”

“I was mortified,” she said. “I handwrote an apology letter to the Opry. I handwrote an apology letter to Dolly.”

King says she was dealing with PTSD at the time. Picture: Getty

Parton later told fans to be kind to the young singer. Picture: AFP

King shared that iconic Jolene singer, 78, called her a couple days later to clear the air.

“She just gave me really kind words and told me, ‘Well, Dolly’s not mad at you, why should the world be?’ [She] made me laugh. That’s the kindness from women,” King added. “That’s the stuff that I’ve received that I’ll never forget, ever, because I wanted to f**king die.”

A few weeks after the incident, Parton told Extra that people should move on.

“Elle is really a great artist; she’s a great girl,” the 9 to 5 singer shared.

“She’s been going through a lot of hard things lately, and she just had too much to drink, so let’s just forgive that and forget it and move on ’cause she felt worse than anybody ever could.”

This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as Singer Elle King reveals sad truth behind infamous onstage meltdown