Will Mellencamp Quit Smoking for the Right Reason?
Last week, rocker John Mellencamp’s youngest son, Speck, started a campaign on Facebook to get his dad to quit smoking. Speck Mellencamp, 14, hopes that his campaign on the social networking site Facebook will inspire his dad, who has promised he would quit smoking if one million people join the Facebook group. Speck’s group is called “1,000,000 to Join, My Dad John Mellencamp Will Quit Smoking.” Membership is growing in the group. At last count, more than 7,000 people had joined Speck’s cause. John Mellencamp suffered a heart attack in 1994 at age 42. He has been smoking for many decades, and attributes his heart attack to his habit – which he has unsuccessfully tried to kick. Mellencamp is not alone in his quest to stop smoking, and acknowledges that it is extremely difficult to do so. He takes full responsibility for his heart attack. In a quote in Rolling Stone magazine in late 1994, Mellencamp said “it’s nobody else’s fault. It’s my fault. I’m a smoking machine. Hell, sometimes I
