Elle King turned to 'different type of therapeutic program' after controversial Dolly Parton show

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Elle King underwent a “different kind of therapeutic program” after her infamous Dolly Parton performance.

The 35-year-old singer took to the stage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn., earlier this year for a show to honour the country music legend’s 78th birthday but she shocked the crowd by swearing, slurring her words and declaring she was “hammered”, and she’s now reflected on how the show came at a time she felt “very sad”.

Speaking on the ‘Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristow’ podcast, King said: “After everything that happened in January, I went to a different type of therapeutic program.

“I was very sad, and nobody really knows what I was going through behind closed doors. I just took that as like ‘A. If it wasn’t this it was going to be something else and B. I had to heal and deal and go through things.'”

The ‘Ex’s + Oh’s’ hitmaker spoke to someone at the time who promised her the incident would have a silver lining, but it’s only looking back now she realizes it was a catalyst for positive change and “growth”.

She said: “I couldn’t go on living my life, or even staying in the situation that I had been going through.

“I couldn’t continue to be existing in that high level of pain that I was going through at the time.

“I feel like Dolly Parton, she just delivered me this opportunity for growth.”

King spoke out about the January performance in May, and she explained she wanted to wait to address what happened until she was in a better place.

She said: “I waited to talk about everything until I had better footing. Because I was not OK.

“If anything, I’m much more me now than I have been in the last 20 years.”