Elle King Faced 'High Level of Pain' During Dolly Parton Drunken Tribute

Elle King is opening up about the struggles she faced before giving a drunken performance at Dolly Parton 's birthday bash ... sharing she's come a long way in the aftermath of the scandal.

The singer addressed the performance during her appearance on Kaitlyn Bristowe 's "Off the Vine" podcast, where Elle admitted she had been seriously struggling with her mental health before the tribute show at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium earlier this year.

As Elle put it ... nobody really knew the extent of her struggles, but she was very sad and dealing with a "high level of pain."

She added ... "Ultimately, like, I couldn’t go on living my life or even staying in the situation that I had been going through."

Per Elle, she sought professional help after the incident, which she said has helped her heal and deal with her mental health issues ... as well as the aftermath of the disastrous performance.

Remember, Elle faced an immense amount of backlash when she drunkenly took the stage and swore as she struggled to perform Dolly's hit, "Marry Me," at the concert for the country legend's 78th birthday. She also told unhappy attendees "You ain't getting your money back."

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The Grand Ole Opry, which hosted the event, apologized to the audience for Elle's behavior. Elle also offered up a mea culpa and copped to being intoxicated onstage ... she also confirmed she apologized to Dolly.

The country legend stood by Elle amid the backlash, saying Rob Schneider 's daughter just messed up -- that simple.

EK previously hinted at her mental health journey back in May, where she explained how she hadn't slept or eaten leading up to the performance.

Now, around 7 months later, Elle told Kaitlyn she waited to share her full truth until she "had better footing."

Sounds like Elle is eager to learn and move on from it all.