Country music star Elle King addressed her controversial Dolly Parton tribute from earlier this year with a new song inspired by the fiasco called “Banned From the Grand Ole Opry.”
The star took to Instagram on Thursday to sing the latest addition to her catalogue with lyrics directed at her January 2024 “Opry Goes Dolly” performance, when King told the crowd she was “(expletive) hammered.”
King told the crowd she was drunk before slurring her speech and forgetting the words to Parton’s song “Marry Me.”
In her Instagram performance, King sings “I ain’t proud, no sir, no way. Wonder what Hank and Merle would say. Least I’m in good company, since I got banned from the Grand Ole Opry.”
She captioned the video “Oops 🩷 love you @dollyparton love you @opry.”
While fans flooded the comments to show their support for King’s new song, Parton herself had shared her support of King shortly after the controversy first took social media by storm.
In February, Parton told E! News she called King and said “You know, there are many F-words,‘” Parton said. “‘Why don’t we use the right one? Forgiveness, friends, forget it.‘”
Parton added that King “made a mistake,” and “feels worse about it than anybody.” Parton said she is “a talented girl” who was “going through some hard times.”
In a 2022 interview with the San Diego Tribune, King told the outlet she would sometimes drink before performing to calm her nerves.
“I get nervous before I go on stage, (so) I have (a) couple of drinks (first),” she told the outlet.
“Drinking makes me less nervous about hitting the notes when I sing. If I don’t make them, it won’t sting as much.”
One Instagram user commented on King’s Thursday performance: “We all make mistakes, and Dolly seems like the type of person who would be the first to reach out and make sure you’re okay. We’ve all had (expletive) moments it’s just not publicized.”
