Elle King Gives Health Update Following Backlash for Drunken Dolly Parton Tribute

Elle King is opening up about the whirlwind year she's had, and how she is working on becoming a better version of herself.

The "Ex's & Oh's" singer made headlines earlier this year when she gave a drunken performance at a Dolly Parton birthday tribute at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville back in January, which tons of critics bashed over for its display of "disrespect" to the country legend .

Since then, King admitted, things haven't been "the easiest."

Speaking in a new interview with PEOPLE , the 35-year-old singer revealed how she's been spending the last several months trying to better herself after landing in a dark place as a result of the incident.

"Try having something bad you did go f—king viral," she said in the article published Friday, Sept. 20. "That was pretty hard."

King, who is the daughter of famous actor Rob Schneider , said she was experiencing a "high level of pain" at the time of her controversial Opry performance. "I never thought that a single human being would ever buy a ticket to my show again. But they do."

After the January incident, King received an overwhelming amount of criticism for her behavior, and one of her concerts scheduled to take place a few days later was ultimately postponed .

"I felt so afraid to ever have a drink before I go onstage again because I appreciated someone buying tickets to my concert. I wasn’t going to let them down," she said in the new interview. "I did let people down. And ultimately, I let myself down that day, and I never wanted to feel that ever again."

After taking the rest of the year to heal, King said, "I'm definitely able to put on a better show because of some changes that I've made in my life, and it gets me more excited."

Now, King says she is "the best version" of herself, and she plans on spending the rest of the year taking the "High Road," which also happens to be the title of her brand-new song that released on Friday.

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