On The Howard Stern Show Wednesday morning, John Mellencamp was insistent about the wonders of smoking cigarettes on your singing voice.
"My voice has gotten better because of the smoking," Mellencamp told Stern.
"It drives me crazy that you smoke," Stern argued. "You're impossible."
Mellencamp's smoking addiction has had a long public history. He suffered a heart attack in 1994 after having a habit of smoking four packs a day. In 2009, Mellencamp's son, Speck, began a Facebook campaign to get his dad to quit smoking, but it doesn't look like the singer/songwriter is going to throw in the towel anytime soon. Mellencamp currently smokes a pack a day.
"I've accepted that cigarettes will probably kill me and that's that," Mellencamp was cited as saying in a DailyMail article in February of this year.
In contrast, Jennifer Hudson, who appeared on The Howard Stern Show earlier that morning, stated that she would never smoke cigarettes because she wants to take care of her voice. She also tries to stay in "natural air" and away from air conditioned rooms. "I wouldn't want to mess with the gift God gave me," she said.
Hear Mellencamp's cigarette-enhanced voice on his new album, PLAIN SPOKEN, released Tuesday, September 23.
http://emptylighthouse.com/john-mellencamps-says-voice-better-because-smoking-901867880
