Stephen King's obsession with the song Mambo No 5 almost got him divorced

Stephen King used to blast Mambo No. 5 at home so much, his wife-of-52-years Tabitha threatened to leave him. Jokingly at least, anyway. 

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the King of Horror was asked about his... unusual obsession with Lou Bega's 1999 hit, to which he revealed he "had the dance mix" and everything.

"Oh, yeah. Big time," he said, when the publication suggested he was a fan of the track. "My wife threatened to divorce me. I played that a lot. 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 went on to say that during that particular period, he was writing 11/22/63, his timey-wimey drama that sees its protagonist travel back to 1963 to try and stop the assassination of former US president John F. Kennedy.

This isn't the first time the author has talked about his long-time partner's disdain for his music tastes, either. Way back in 2009, he wrote about his love of 'Coconut' by Harry Nilsson, 'Who Let the Dogs Out' by Baha Men and 'Mambo No. 5' in an Entertainment Weekly op-ed, adding: "Concerning [that] last one, I want to share that my wife once informed me that she would disembowel me with her sharpest Ginsu knife if I played the extended version one more time." Well, it wouldn't be a true King tale without the promise of a little blood, huh?

"I waited until she was running errands, then played it… not once but several times," he continued. "Because that's the thing with earworms: They attract even as they repulse. Put another way, you know you'll only spread that rash by scratching it, but you can't help it."

For more, check out our ranking of the best Stephen King adaptations, from Salem's Lot and Christine, to Doctor Sleep.