Ingrid Andress is reflecting on her botched national anthem at the 2024 Home Run Derby — and how experiencing the “worst moment” of her life before millions of viewers ultimately helped her turn things around.
The country singer, 33, spoke to Rolling Stone in her first interview since her viral performance last July, and explained that she’s emerged from a month-long stay at a treatment facility with a new outlook on life.
“I am sorry you had to witness that horrific rendition of our nation’s anthem,” she said. “Whoever that was is not an accurate representation of who I am at all. You got to see me in my worst moment, so now, everything from here will be great.”
Shortly after the performance, Andress apologized to fans in a statement shared to Instagram that revealed she was “drunk” while singing, and was checking into a facility in order “to get the help I need.”
“I felt like America’s punching bag. I became a way to unite America. It was like, ‘At least we can all agree that this girl botched the anthem,’” Andress told RS of the public reaction to her performance. “I’ll be the punching bag for sure, but I didn’t commit a crime. It felt very extreme for what the situation was.”
Andress told the outlet that she started drinking that fateful day after her soundcheck, something that wasn’t out of the ordinary for her at the time. The singer said that up until then, she’d never let alcohol affect her performance, and she “liked the numbness” that came with being intoxicated.
The four-time Grammy nominee said she was “blacked out” while singing, and missed the pitch of her in-ear monitor, which signaled when she was supposed to start.
“If you don’t start on the note that it gives you, you’re screwed,” she said. “It was my voice fighting with the tuner, which is a losing battle.”
Afterward, she recalled talking to a close friend on the phone and saying that she thought the performance had gone “okay,” only to realize that was not the case.
Andress said her team tried to protect her from backlash bubbling up online, but she ultimately felt the need to speak out on her own, without running a statement by anyone else.
“I needed to let people know that it’s not just this one incident that I messed up. ‘I need to get better. I’m at such a low place, I’m not gonna lie about it,’” she recalled, while admitting her comment about how rehab might be “super fun” came off as “insensitive.”
Hours later, Andress boarded a plane to a rehab facility, and cried so much on the flight that a flight attendant tried to console her.
The singer told RS she spent just over a month at a treatment center to deal with substance abuse issues, and also had to grapple with life-altering decisions she had yet to grieve, including a breakup and a parting of ways with her former manager. A slew of country stars reached out with supportive messages, including Elle King and Kelsea Ballerini, and she even heard from Carlos Santana, who expressed interest in working on a song together.
After leaving rehab, Andress said she spent six months living quietly in her native Colorado in attempt to reconnect with her true self.
“I feel like I’ve gotten to know myself again, which is probably the biggest gift of all of it,” Andress said. “I learned to not ever let your past dictate what you can do in the future. Sometimes it takes a little public humiliation to turn your life around.”
On Feb. 28, she returned to the spotlight to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” once again, this time at a hockey game between the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche. On March 3, she released the new single “Footprints,” which she said in a statement is a “reminder to all the people I love the most, and also to myself, that I’m out here trying my best at this ‘life’ thing, and if there’s any helpful guidance anyone can take from it, it’s all worth it.”
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