Back in January 2024, country musician Elle King ruffled feathers across the genre’s fandom after her cover of “Marry Me” by Dolly Parton, as performed at Parton’s 78th birthday celebration at the world-famous Grand Ole Opry venue, was met with fury by the audience members and fellow country stars.
King, 34, began her performance by admitting she was “f**king hammered”, before getting most of the lyrics messed up, peppered with constant swearing throughout — which was not ideal for the parents who brought their children to the show. At one point, King began arguing with a heckler, taunting them about not getting their money back, and even joked that her cover was so bad it could potentially kill Dolly Parton.
Curtains were quickly drawn after the cover, cutting King’s set short, with the Grand Ole Opry apologizing for her performance to unhappy audience members after the show. Since then, fans have been highly curious about Dolly’s reaction to her tribute that fell so drastically flat.
Has Dolly Parton addressed the Elle King Grand Ole Opry controversy?
Shortly after the concert took place, Dolly’s sister and fellow musician, Stella Parton, wrote a six-part Twitter thread about her thoughts on King’s performance.
“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 p**s on the star circle on the stage,” the 74-year-old posted. “When you disrespect someone in my family, you have disrespected all of us.”
Since Dolly kept quiet on the subject at the time, many fans assumed the country icon shared the same opinions as her younger sister — that is, until she cleared the air in a recent interview.
As for Miss Dolly herself, she had no ill will towards the young country artist and was actually rather supportive. Speaking to ExtraTV this week, Dolly finally set the record straight regarding her take on Elle’s widely-panned performance.
“Elle is a really great artist, she’s a great girl and she’s been going through a lot of hard things lately,” Parton said, likely referencing King’s past struggle with substance abuse, which she has been vocal about in the past. “She just had a little too much to drink.”
“Let’s just forgive that and forget it and move on,” the 78-year-old said, touching upon the high volume of backlash Elle has received, and assured that the singer probably “felt worse than anybody ever could.”
With Dolly’s real thoughts on the matter made public, let that be the final say on the recent controversy.
