Rocker John Mellencamp has revealed the inspiration behind his musical collaboration with horror writer Stephen King - he once owned a haunted house where a grisly murder took place.
The veteran songwriter teamed up with King in 2000 to work on Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a play about a spooky holiday home inhabited by the spectres of two brothers who killed each other there years before.
The musical is finally set to hit the stage next year (11) after a series of production delays - and Mellencamp has now told of his own ghostly encounter that inspired the story.
In an interview with Q magazine, he recalls purchasing a lakeside cabin in Indiana as a holiday home for his family but later received a series of newspaper cuttings in the mail detailing a gruesome slaying that took place at the property in the 1930s.
He says, "The place was haunted. I stayed in it for two nights, couldn't stand it. You'd hear things, s**t would move. Sounds crazy, but it's true."
Mellencamp sold the cabin when he realised he couldn't live in a haunted home, and admits he said "Not a f**king word" to the buyer about the ghostly goings-on.
Asked how fans will react to his collaboration with King, he adds: "It will either be so f**king good that you can't stand it, or the worst piece of s**t you ever saw."