Elle King Reflects on Dolly Parton Tribute Incident with New Song, ‘Banned From The Grand Ole Opry’

Elle King has addressed her infamous performance at Dolly Parton's 78th birthday tribute at the Grand Ole Opry in the best way a country artist possible can - through a new song.

Almost exactly a year ago, in January 2024, King sparked controversy when she delivered an inebriated, cuss-laden rendition of Parton's ‘Marry Me’, with the ‘Ex's & Oh's’ hitmaker forgetting the words and admitting to the crowd that she was “hammered“.

The Opry apologised to viewers, with Elle King being met with a barrage of criticism following the incident. The LA native appeared on the Dear Chelsea podcast a few months later and expressed her remorse for what happened, sharing, “The Grand Ole Opry is a sacred stage and I messed up”, before revealing she had been contending with PTSD and had not slept nor eaten for days prior to the event.

Now, Elle King has offered a slightly more light-hearted take on what happened via her socials, through a playful new unreleased track, titled ‘Banned From The Grand Ole Opry’. In the stripped-back song, King croons candidly, “Cup or two, three, floor / How many martinis more until the curtain call / Brother could you help me please”.

King highlights her regret at how things progressed, “Probably shoulda stuck to weed / Or maybe nothin’ at all / Things got outta hand / Now I’m banned from the Grand Ole Opry”.

Endearingly, despite receiving backlash from all corners of the country music world, Dolly Parton took no umbrage at Elle King's performance, with King recalling how Dolly called her soon after the incident to assure her, “‘Well, Dolly’s not mad at you, why should the world be?’”. In a February interview with ExtraTV, the unofficial Queen of Country heartwarmingly doubled down on her support for King, “She's a great girl. She's been going through a lot and just had a bit too much to drink”.

It's not yet clear whether Elle King has indeed been banned from the Grand Ole Opry, and if so, whether this is temporary. A host of other artists having been barred from the hallowed venue, including Johnny Cash, who King name-checks in the new song.

In the caption to her acoustic performance of the unreleased track, Elle King teased, “Oops 🩷 love you @dollyparton love you @opry”, before touching on Dolly Parton's kindness towards her in the comments, “Dolly is and always will be the greatest of all time”.

It's possible ‘Banned From The Grand Ole Opry’ is merely Elle King's way of responding to the intense media scrutiny and hate she was subjected to following her Dolly Parton tribute performance, but fans are hoping she decides to make the full version available soon - perhaps even on the one-year anniversary of that fateful night, January 19th, as a tongue-in-cheek way of marking the occasion.

Listen to Elle King's ‘Banned From The Grand Ole Opry’ snippet below:

For more on Elle King, see below:

Featured photo by Kendall Wilson