Stephen King has said his wife Tabitha “threatened to divorce” him because he played Lou Bega’s ‘Mambo No. 5’ so much.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the novelist revealed that he’s a huge fan of the 1999 summer track, which was a cover of an instrumental song composed by Pérez Prado.
Asked if he’s a fan of Lou Bega’s version, King said: “Oh, yeah. Big time. 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 fucking leave you.’”
King married Tabitha, who is also a novelist, in 1971. They have three children together, daughter Naomi, and sons Owen and Joseph.
Elsewhere in the interview, King said he particularly listens to “techno stuff or disco stuff” when he writes, citing LCD Soundsystem and Fatboy Slim as particular favourites.
“I can just listen to that stuff,” King added. “If you tried to write and listen to Leonard Cohen, how the fuck would you do that? Because you’d have to listen to the words and you’d have to listen to what he’s saying. But with some of the techno stuff, or KC and the Sunshine Band, Gloria Gaynor, it’s all good.”
The author is currently promoting his latest book Holly, which follows a private investigator as she attempts to solve a string of disappearances at the height of the COVID pandemic.
Earlier this year, an adaptation of The Boogeyman, based on a short story by King from 1973, was released in cinemas. The film was directed by Rob Savage (Host) and received a positive response from the novelist himself.
In other King adaptations, an It prequel series titled Welcome To Derry is in development at HBO. The series promises to “expand the vision” of the recent movie adaptations and comes from the same director, Andy Muschietti.
87