Stephen King is one of the most prolific authors of all time and has earned the prestigious title of the Master of Horror. But what does the mind behind such iconic, chilling novels like The Shining, Salem's Lot, and It listen to while conjuring up his terrifying premises? Turns out, a lot of "Mambo No. 5" by Lou Bega. So much "Mambo No. 5", in fact, that his wife, Tabitha King, whom he married in 1971, threatened to divorce him if he dropped a needle on the track just one more time.
In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, King confessed to playing the 1999 mambo and jazz hit frequently while writing his 2011 novel, 11/22/63. We're not sure how the song about "Angela, Pamela, Sandra and Rita" fueled King as he penned the story of a time-traveler attempting to stop the Kennedy assassination, though some would likely use such power to go back to '99 and prevent Bega from writing "Mambo No. 5" — King's wife included.
"Oh, yeah. Big time," King said when asked if the rumors about his love for the divisive tune are true. "My wife threatened to divorce me. I played that a lot."
"I had the dance mix," the author continued. "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**king leave you.'"
"When I write, there are things that I can listen to a lot," he said. "And a lot of it is techno stuff or disco stuff, but techno in particular. There's this group called LCD Soundsystem, and I love that. Fatboy Slim is somebody else. I can just listen to that stuff. 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."
What's King got queued up these days? "Lately, I think that I've been sort of stuck on Foghat and Bob Seger, people like that," he said. "But I've also been listening to a fair amount of country music. So a lot of Travis Tritt and Alan Jackson, people like that."
His latest novel, Holly, is available now.
