Stephen King is more than just the prolific author of horror doorstops. He’s also a dad joke hero, a champion of last year’s box office bomb Babylon, a top shelf dragger of Ted Cruz. None of that is what one would expect from the creator of The Shining and The Stand. Neither is this: King is a huge, huge fan of Lou Bega’s late ‘90s earworm “Mambo No. 5.” How big a fan? Enough that his passion for it almost got him divorced.
King spoke with Rolling Stone recently, in honor of his new novel Holly. In a bit teased out by The AV Club, the interviewer asked about his intense ardor for a song so cheesy that it inspired a solid Tracy Morgan sketch.
“Oh, yeah. Big time,” he said, adding, “My wife threatened to divorce me. I played that a lot. I had the dance mix. I loved those extended play things, and I played both sides of it. And one of them was just total instrumental. And I played that thing until my wife just said, ‘One more time, and I’m going to f*cking leave you.”’
Did his wife, Tabitha, who is still with him after over half a century of marriage, have a point? It’s up to you decide, though maybe the best way to revisit it is when it’s played over top a key scene from The Matrix.
(Via Rolling Stone and The AV Club)