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Matthew McConaughey 'quit weed' after listening to Janet Jackson hit 24 times and missed his own birthday

Actor reveals he sat in his car listening to That’s the Way Love Goes on repeat and realised it was time to leave drug behind

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Matthew McConaughey has credited Janet Jackson for the help of her song
Matthew McConaughey has credited Janet Jackson for the help of her song. Picture: Alamy

By William Mata

Matthew McConaughey has thanked Janet Jackson after revealing he quit smoking cannabis after missing his own birthday party as he was listening to her hit That's the Way Love Goes while high.

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The actor said he sat in his car and listened to the 1993 hit 24 times in a row, which caused him to miss the celebrations in the nineties, with the shame leading him to stop using the drug.

"It's a cool, groovy tune, and the reason I quit smoking weed," he told Rolling Stone about why he had chosen the hit for their feature My Life In 10 Songs.

The 56-year-old said that That's the Way Love Goes came out around the time that cannabis doses provided users with a hallucinatory experience beyond what came before.

He said: “We’d taken over the club for my birthday party. I’m gonna drive myself. Before I go, my buddy hands me this joint, he goes, ‘Here, man. Have some of this, super fun.’

"I get there, and I take the toke in the car. It was not like the weed I’d smoked before. I listened to Janet Jackson’s That’s the Way Love Goes 24 times in a row, and when I finally got out of the car to go into my birthday party, no one was in there, ‘cause it was over. They’d all left.”

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He added: “I sat in the frickin’ car listening to That’s the Way Love Goes 24 times because I thought, at the time, that that was more important than going to my own birthday party.

"Love the song, didn’t love the weed. Still like the tune, though.”