Elle King, musician and daughter of comedian and celebrated Saturday Night Live alumni Rob Schneider, found herself in hot water this week, after footage of her performance at the Grande Ole Opry’s birthday salute to Dolly Parton went viral.
While the singer is not a household name to music fans unfamiliar with country music, the 34-year-old has left an indelible mark on the genre in recent years, and has been in the spotlight from a young age.
Who is Elle King?
Elle King — born Tanner Elle Schneider — is a musician, specializing in the country and rock genres. Born in Los Angeles to comedian Rob Schneider and model London King in 1989, the singer took on her mother’s name when she stepped into show business formally, having made her debut as a child in her father’s movie Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999).
King began playing guitar at 13 years old and spent her teenage years performing at small venues. In 2012, the singer released her first EP, titled The Elle King EP, a mix of country, blues rock, and pop. The musician spent the early years of her career as an opening act for major artists, including Train in 2012 and Ed Sheeran in 2013.
King’s debut single, “Ex’s and Oh’s,” reached number 10 on the Billboard charts and number 1 on the rock charts, reaching 4x platinum certification. The hit song also earned two Grammy nominations for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. In 2016, the singer won a Country Music Association Award (CMA) for Musical Event of The Year, shared with Dierks Bentley for their collaboration, “Different for Girls,” which reached number 1 on the Country Airplay charts and selling 2 million units in the U.S.
King has released three studio albums: Love Stuff (2015), Shake The Spirit (2018), and Come Get Your Wife (2023). Across these albums, the musician has experimented with several genres, including pop-punk, gospel, and R&B, in addition to her initial roots in blues rock and country.
Elle King’s Grand Ole Opry controversy, explained
Elle King was invited as a guest performer at the iconic Grand Ole Opry venue in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of a birthday celebration for Dolly Parton, who turned 78 on January 19th. King performed a cover of Parton’s song “Marry Me” as a tribute to the singer, prefacing the performance by telling the crowd that she was “f***ing hammered”, as part of an expletive-filled introduction.
“Holy s***t, I’m not gonna f***ing lie, Y’all bought tickets for this s**t?” King said. When heckled by an audience member, Elle responded “You ain’t getting your money back, I’ll tell you one thing.”
Unsurprisingly, the crowd weren’t exactly thrilled with this beginning to the Grammy nominee’s performance, especially as the event was advertised as family-friendly show. To make matters worse, the following performance of “Marry Me” was incoherent at best, with the singer admitting she forgot the lyrics to Dolly’s song.
You can watch the raucous TikTok in question here.
“I don’t know the lyrics to these things in this f***ing town,” King said, while ad-libbing new lyrics to the tune. At one point, King even joked that her performance would cause the death of Dolly Parton – not exactly something fans want to hear at a birthday bash for the star.
“Please, don’t tell Dolly. Holy s**t, I swear to God if you guys kill Dolly,” Elle joked during the performance.
According to one audience member, as reported by People, the Grand Ole Opry promptly shut the curtains on the performance, seemingly cutting short any other songs that King had prepared.
After audience members took to Twitter to complain about the performance, the venue issued an apology for King’s performance on the social media site.
“We deeply regret and apologize for the language that was used during last night’s second Opry performance,” The Grand Ole Opry wrote in response to one complaint.
Clips recorded by audience members during the performance quickly went viral, leading to a worldwide backlash from the country music circles, including that of Dolly Parton’s sister, Stella Parton.
“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,” Stella wrote, as part of a six-part Twitter thread commenting on the matter.
While King has not commented on the backlash to her performance so far, the 34-year-old did postpone a number of her upcoming concerts on her U.S. tour.