If he hasn't been able to do it for his son, will he be able do it for his fans?
Join the club and follow his pop's progress.
John Mellencamp's 14-year-old son recently erected a
Facebook page to see if he can get 1 million fans to support his plea for senior Mellencamp to quit the cancer sticks.
"I made a deal with my dad that if I get a 1,000,000 to join this group he will quit smoking," wrote
Speck Mellencamp on the Facebook profile.
He recently said to
NPR about the site, which now has more than 230,000 members: "I think he would like to [quit], but I just don't think he ever had the willpower to.
"He says if a million people [join the group] and then somebody sees him [smoking], he'll seem like the bad guy. So he kinda has to [quit]."
Speck has set no deadline, and many folks are sharing their own stories about smoking cessation -- and volunteering to quit along with the singer once the group count hits a million.
Mellencamp, at times, has smoked upwards of four packs, or 80 cigarettes, a day, reports
Rolling Stone online.
So far, his son's drive has already made an impact.
"It’s no longer only about my dad, but it has become something bigger," wrote the teen on the Facebook group page on Dec. 2.
"Today at lunch my dad promised that if the group gets... to 100,000 he will start cutting back." Just prior to that post, on Dec. 1, only 7,000 members had joined, reported
Entertainment Weekly.
Mellencamp publicist
Bob Merlis has also confirmed to the Associated Press that the challenge is indeed legitimate.
Join the group and learn more:
Facebook.com/1,000,000.
