In 2012, King released her debut EP "The Elle King EP" on RCA; one track from that EP, "Playing for Keeps", is the theme song for VH1's Mob Wives Chicago series.
She released her debut album "Love Stuff" in 2015. It produced the US top ten single "Ex's & Oh's", which earned her two Grammy Award nominations. King has also toured with acts such as Of Monsters and Men, Train, James Bay, The Chicks, Heart, Joan Jett, Michael Kiwanuka, and Miranda Lambert. She is the daughter of actor and comedian Rob Schneider and former model London King. King uses her mother's surname to distinguish her career and identity from her father's. "People know who my dad is," she told ABC News, "but I think that my voice and my music speaks for itself: that I am my own person."
King is a four-time Grammy Award nominee, two each in the rock and country categories, and received honors from the Country Music Association Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards.
King was born on July 3, 1989 in Los Angeles, California, to then-Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider and London King, a former model. Her parents divorced and her mother remarried. She grew up living in Ohio, between Wellston and Columbus. When she was nine, her stepfather, Justin Tesa, gave her a record by all-female hard-rock band the Donnas; she views this as the pivotal moment when she decided she wanted to be a musician. Around this time, she also started listening to the Runaways and Blondie, and she made her acting debut alongside her father in the movie Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
At the age of 13, King started playing guitar, immersing herself in the music of Otis Redding, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, AC/DC (she has the phrase "dirty deeds" tattooed on her biceps), and Earl Scruggs. Her interest in the country and bluegrass of Hank Williams and Earl Scruggs inspired her to learn the banjo. During her teenage years, she attended Buck's Rock camp in Connecticut, where she starred successfully in a number of musicals.
King spent her teenage years in New York City, but she has also lived in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Upon graduating from Elisabeth Irwin High School/Little Red School House, she moved to Philadelphia to enroll at University of the Arts, studying painting and film. During these college years, she had an artistic epiphany seeing a live show where the band onstage used a banjo purely for accompaniment purposes, eschewing the bluegrass and country musical vocabulary traditionally associated with the instrument. King then began to use the banjo as a compositional tool. After college, she briefly lived in Copenhagen and Los Angeles, before moving back to New York where she currently resides in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
In September 2014, King released "Ex's & Oh's", which serves as the lead single off her debut album. She released the album, Love Stuff on February 17, 2015. She performed "Ex's & Oh's" the next day on The Today Show to promote it. The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming King's first top ten single in the United States. "Ex's & Oh's" received two nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards: Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. In July 2015, King supported Modest Mouse on their UK tour. "Under the Influence" and "America's Sweetheart" were later released as singles for rock radio and mainstream radio, respectively. In 2016, her single "Good Girls" featured on the Ghostbusters soundtrack and played over the movie's credits. In 2016, she teamed up with country singer Dierks Bentley for the song "Different for Girls". They performed this song at the 50th CMA Awards on November 2, 2016, when she and Bentley won the award for Musical Event of the Year.
On March 6, 2017, she premiered a new single "Wild Love" featuring a sparse electronic production, marking a slight departure from her previous style in music.
King released her second studio album "Shake the Spiri", on October 19, 2018, which she made with her band the Brethren. On August 3, 2019, she was featured singing on a version of Lindsey Stirling's "The Upside". Throughout 2019, King served as a guest co-host on the MTV series Catfish: The TV Show opposite lead host Nev Schulman.
In 2021, it was revealed she was pregnant with her first child with tattoo artist Dan Tooker. On September 1, 2021, she welcomed a baby boy. King has several tattoos, and worked at a tattoo company called East Side Ink.
Ex
Elle King Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I showed him all the things that he didn't understand
Whoa, and then I let him go
Now, there's one in California who's been cursing my name
'Cause I found me a better lover in the UK
Hey, hey, until I made my getaway
'Cause I'm the best baby that they never gotta keep
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave
Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
Ex's and oh's
I had a summer lover down in New Orleans
Kept him warm in the winter, left him frozen in the spring
My, my, how the seasons go by
I get high, and I love to get low
So the hearts keep breaking, and the heads just roll
You know that's how the story goes
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
'Cause I'm the best baby that they never gotta keep
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave
Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
My ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
Ex's and oh's
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
Climbing over mountains and a-sailing over seas
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave
My ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
Ex's and oh's
Elle King's "Ex's and Oh's" is a song that details the experience of a woman who keeps getting pursued by ex-lovers who cannot seem to forget about her. In the first verse, she sings about a boy that she loved and taught how to be a man, but eventually had to let go. The second verse talks about a summer lover in New Orleans that she kept warm in the winter and froze in the spring, continuing the theme that she cannot stay committed to one person for long. The chorus of the song talks about how her ex-lovers keep coming back to her, like ghosts that haunt her (hence the lyrics "Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me/Like ghosts, they want me to make 'em all/They won't let go").
The bridge of the song provides some more insight into why she keeps breaking hearts and why she cannot stay with one person for long. She claims that she gets high and loves to get low, and that's how the story goes- suggesting that she craves excitement and passion in her relationships but cannot maintain them over time.
Overall, "Ex's and Oh's" is a catchy and relatable song about the universal experience of dealing with exes who just won't let go. It is a testament to the power of moving on and the importance of being able to let go of past relationships in order to move forward and find happiness.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I had me a boy, turned him into a man
I was in a relationship with a boy who I helped mature into a man
I showed him all the things that he didn't understand
I helped him learn and understand things he didn't previously know
Whoa, and then I let him go
Eventually, I ended the relationship and let him go
Now, there's one in California who's been cursing my name
There's someone in California who's angry with me and holds a grudge
'Cause I found me a better lover in the UK
Because I found a new and better partner in the United Kingdom
Hey, hey, until I made my getaway
I left the previous relationship and moved on to this new one
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
Previous partners will always come back to me
'Cause I'm the best baby that they never gotta keep
I am a great partner, but previous partners were not able to keep me
They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave
Previous partners want to be with me, but they always end up leaving
Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Thoughts of past relationships and their aftermath continue to bother me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
The memories and emotions associated with previous relationships continue to follow and affect me
They won't let go
I am unable to fully let go of past relationships and their impact on me
I had a summer lover down in New Orleans
I had a romantic partner during a summer spent in New Orleans
Kept him warm in the winter, left him frozen in the spring
I was affectionate and loving towards my partner during the winter, but became cold and distant in the spring
My, my, how the seasons go by
Time passes quickly and relationships change quickly as well
I get high, and I love to get low
I experience highs and lows in my relationships and enjoy both extremes
So the hearts keep breaking, and the heads just roll
Emotions continue to be damaged and people continue to be hurt
You know that's how the story goes
This is just how relationships often unfold
Climbing over mountains and a-sailing over seas
Previous partners will go to great lengths to try and win me back
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: DAVE BASSETT, ELLE KING, TANNER SCHNEIDER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@taneilbarnett9926
LYRICS 0:00
Well, I had me a boy, turned him into a man
I showed him all the things that he didn't understand
Whoa, and then I let him go
Now, there's one in California who's been cursing my name
'Cause I found me a better lover in the UK
Hey, hey, until I made my getaway
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
'Cause I'm the best baby that they never gotta keep
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave
Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
Ex's and oh's
I had a summer lover down in New Orleans
Kept him warm in the winter, left him frozen in the spring
My, my, how the seasons go by
I get high, and I love to get low
So the hearts keep breaking, and the heads just roll
You know that's how the story goes
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
'Cause I'm the best baby that they never gotta keep
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave
Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
My ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
Ex's and oh's
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
Climbing over mountains and a-sailing over seas
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me
They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave
My ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go
Ex's and oh's
@monicawilliams6846
That raspy voice is everything😍
@subjectdeath4816
michael mede your right! About yourself :3
@weirdmcdermott1253
@michael mede I mine as well be on you're side because i have nothing else to do
@idkwhoiam1012
weird McDermott that literally makes no sense :/
@gr33nv0idx4
michael mede racist.
@fbi1819
@michael mede lol
@Mr.Liam.
Love the ‘raspyness’ to her voice it’s so unique.
@josephh3696
Agreed very much so
@fruity3693
She sounds very similar to sia i noticed
@JoelMatee
Mixed between ‘sia’ and ‘tones and I’