Stephen King is lucky he still has a little bit of Tabitha in his life.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the legendary horror novelist told the magazine that his wife, fellow author Tabitha King, nearly walked out on him because of his obsession with the Lou Bega song “Mambo No. 5.”
Asked by reporter Brenna Ehrlich whether it was true that he was a fan of the 1999 hit song, King responded, “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.’”
Bega’s song, a cover version of Dámaso Pérez Prado’s 1950 instrumental with lyrics added, was a chart-topping earworm that was inescapable around the turn of the century. The song features Bega reciting a litany of women with whom he enjoys flirting, and features deathless lyrics like “Anything fly, it's all good, let me dump it / Please set in the trumpet.”
King, whose latest novel, Holly, was published on Tuesday, also discussed other musicians and bands he listens to while writing, including LCD Soundsystem, Fatboy Slim, and Gloria Gaynor. He noted, however, that he can’t write while listening to Leonard Cohen. (Sing it with us: “A little bit of Suzanne in my life, a little bit of Marianne by my side…”)
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
