Elle King has been slammed for her “disrespectful” performance at an event celebrating Dolly Parton’s birthday after she allgedly turned up “hammered”.
The 34-year-old singer was invited to perform at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium for The Grand Ole Opry, widely regarded as one of the greatest country music shows in the world, on January 19. While Dolly wasn’t present herself, the Opry Goes Dolly show was intended to celebrate the country icon on her 78th birthday.
But the legendary country music venue was forced to apologise after Elle, who is the daughter of actor Rob Schneider, was accused of “ruining” the evening by appearing on stage “drunk”. She repeatedly dropped the F-bomb, and was seen forgetting the words to a Dolly Parton song. “We deeply regret and apologize for the language that was used during last night’s second Opry performance,” the venue said.
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The apology came in response to a Tweet from a disappointed fan who wrote: “Elle King ruined the night with her horrible, drunk, and profane performance. Dolly Parton would’ve been mortified. For our first time at the Opry, it was a shame we all had to witness that.”
(Image: @jamiek721/TikTok)
They added: “It was such a disappointment to spend $300 on tickets for a show where one of the artists ruined an entire night.” They weren’t the only disgruntled fans, taking to TikTok to share a video of the performance, another audience member named Jamie wrote: “I think we just watched the demise of Elle King’s career.”
The clip showed Elle telling the audience: “You ain’t getting your money back, I’ll tell you one thing”. As a member of the audience shouted at her, she then admitted she was drunk.
WARNING: THE BELOW CLIP CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
“I’ll tell you one thing more, hi my name is Elle King I’m f***ing hammered,” she said. Revealing how the audience reacted, Jamie captioned the clip: “People gasped and could not believe the disrespect.”
She noted there were children in the audience and slammed Elle for disrespecting not just Dolly but also the prestigious country music venue she was at. Detailing more of the performance, Jamie added: “She said ‘F***’ about 15 times prior to this and forgot the words to the Dolly song she was supposed to sing.”
(Image: Getty Images for American Greetings)
She claimed the event ended early as the curtain was shut on Elle. Another video shared to TikTok showed the moment Elle forgot the words to Dolly’s 2001 song Marry Me.
Elle could be heard singing: “I don’t know the lyrics to these things in this f***ing town… Don’t tell Dolly ‘cause it’s her birthday.” She then poked fun at fans for forking out on tickets to see her as she said: “‘You spent money for this s**t?”
WARNING: THE BELOW CLIP CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
“I can barely play another person’s song, let me see if I can play one of mine,” Elle responded as her bandmate suggested she play one of her own songs instead. “I think Elle King just ended her career. I can’t imagine disrespecting Dolly at the @Grand Ole Opry on Dolly’s birthday,” a TikTok user wrote as they shared the clip.
Viewers chimed in to criticise the performance. One person wrote: “That’s disgraceful!” Another person who was at the show commented: “It was so awkward I just sat there like is this actually happening?! And this video isn’t as bad as it could be.”
(Image: Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images)
A third added: “Egotistical trash.” A fourth wrote: “Can’t imagine how the members on stage with her was feeling! Bet they was pissed on the inside and told her outside!”
Another said: “What we don’t do is disrespect the QUEEN!” Others questioned where Elle’s thick southern drawl had come from.
“The accent is crazy? She’s from LA. Her dad is Rob Schneider. She just switched to country music like 3 years ago,” one person noted. Another agreed, adding: “She’s from LA and NY and hasn’t ever lived in the south – where’s the accent from?”
(Image: Getty Images)
But some were more concerned over the singer’s wellbeing. “It’s so sad seeing people like that,” one person commented. Another wrote: “This is actually heartbreaking.”
Elle has not addressed the performance but she has previously opened up about her drinking in the past as she revealed it makes her less nervous on stage. She told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2022: “I really like to drink and sing. I don’t want to get as drunk as I used to”.
She added: “It’s easier for me to say: ‘Yeah, I want to drink and party and [then] go on stage.’ I get nervous before I go on stage, [so] I have couple of drinks [first]. Drinking makes me less nervous about hitting the notes when I sing. If I don’t make them, it won’t sting as much.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
