Elle King took the stage at the Extra Innings Festival in Tempe, Arizona on Friday (March 1) in one of her first performances following her appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in January. While performing for Dolly Parton’s birthday at the time, King announced she was “hammered” and proceeded with a cover of Parton’s “Marry Me” in which she forgot much of the lyrics and cursed profusely on stage.
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After the incident at the Opry, King postponed several concerts and went quiet on social media. She did not address her January performance, and appeared at the Extra Innings Festival without comment. Additionally, she is set to perform at the San Diego stop of Chris Stapleton’s All American Road Show, and has her own forthcoming shows set for the U.K. and North America.
In her infinite wisdom, Dolly Parton responded to King’s performance and radio silence with kind words and no hard feelings. In an interview with Extra in February, Parton urged fans to “forgive and forget.” She said, “Elle is really a great artist. She’s a great girl, and she’s been going through [a lot of] hard things lately.”
Parton continued, “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.”
[RELATED: Elle King Makes First Move Since Dolly Parton Tribute Mishap]
Dolly Parton Forgives Elle King, but Her Sister Stella Never Forgets
Following the Opry performance, Parton’s younger sister, Stella, found it hard to “forgive and forget.” She stuck up for her older sister on Twitter/X, writing some strongly worded tweets in response to Elle King.
“I’m still stewing and thinking bout how any lil spoiled brat with an opportunity to sing on the Opry to pay tribute to a legendary songwriter like Dolly Parton would just piss on the star circle on the stage. Taylor Swift wouldn’t,” Stella wrote in part. “There’s many different ways for a female singer to make a name for herself like maybe doing your damn homework,” she continued.
“For every singer, country or otherwise who has ever graced that stage and every fan who has ever sat in that audience we consider it a sacred space and a devine [sic] opportunity,” she wrote. “Well, if ya think it works in Country Music for a female to get attention, about five minutes is it! There’s a BIG double standard between men and women in entertainment and I’ve never seen it do men or women any good to disrespect an audience.”
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