Tom Jones International

Music: Still a sex bomb
Welsh superstar Tom Jones is preparing to play Belfast in October. Sunday Life caught up with the ageless performer, who reveals he’s not quite ready to lose the leather.
By Edwin McFee/23 July 2006

Life must be a hell of a ride if you’re the newly knighted British crooner Tom Jones.

Even at the ripe old age of 66, the leathery legend (we mean that in the best possible way, Mr Jones) continues to pack them in at concert halls world-wide.

And of course, he still gets his fair share of ladies’ knickers lobbed up at him on stage.

It also seems that every so often, Tom reinvents himself for a younger crowd.

In the Eighties, his notoriously OTT version of Prince’s Kiss brought him back to life and the same thing happened in the Nineties when he tackled the ever so subtle strains of Mousse T’s Sex Bomb.

And now, he’s done it again with his own inimitable take on dance music — see his recent Top 10 single, Stoned In Love, for further details.

So what will his hard-core fan-base think of their hero’s current incarnation? Tom, it’s over to you.
“I think my fans will love the single because it’s a proper song,” he says.

“Everyone I’ve played it to loves it and that’s no word of a lie, so I don’t think there’s a problem there at all.

“I’ll be performing the song live and I think it will go down well.”

There’s a story that Tom loves to tell about his performance at the Glastonbury festival in 1993.

When he was asked to play the legendary event, he wasn’t sure what reaction he was going to receive.

At that point, he had been caricatured as a medallion-wearing, hairy-chested lothario.

Were the fans (old enough to be his grandchildren) going to take the Michael?

Well, as luck would have it, the minute Tom strolled onstage he clocked a banner proclaiming: “Tom F****ing Jones!” and from then on, he knew he’d be okay.

So Tom, when you first started in the Sixties, did you ever think you’d still be at the top, 40 years later?

“Well, you don’t know what’ll happen in the future,” considers the living legend.

“You don’t know which way music is going to go.

“If you’d asked me in the Sixties if I would still be doing what I do, I would definitely have said I would like to be trying new things when I got to this age, but not necessarily in the same way.

“I approached songs differently even then.

“The Green, Green Grass of Home wasn’t like It’s Not Unusual or What’s New Pussycat? They differ, you know. They’re done in different ways and with different producers.

“I did It’s Not Unusual with Peter Sullivan and What’s New Pussycat? with Burt Bacharach, so there’s two different styles right there.

“I was always open to listening to new things and trying new things, so I would have said at that time, hopefully, that I could continue to do different things.”

During Tom’s career he’s received knighthoods, headlined gigs all over the world and has a house filled with awards.

He’s even been immortalised on the Simpsons!

While Tom’s peers currently reside in the ‘where are they now file’, Mr Jones has gone from strength to strength.

What’s the secret of his success?

“I think a lot of it has to do with ability and getting with the right producer,” he reflects.

“You need to have new ideas, rather than to fall into a rut where you’re doing everything the same.

“You have to have fresh ideas that you need to embrace if you want something to sound new.

“There are a lot of different things that need to come together and I think I’m able to do that. I’m open-minded enough to do it, I think.”

When many people say the name Tom Jones, two words usually come into their minds - Las Vegas.

With images of scantily clad dancers, slot machines and chicken in a basket swimming around in our heads, is Vegas really like the place we see on TV?

“I suppose it is really,” smiles Tom. “A lot of interviewers ask me if I still play in Vegas and I always tell them of course I do!

“My Vegas show isn’t a nostalgia thing. Las Vegas to me is just another place to play.

“I go on and do the same kind of show - I don’t change a thing for Vegas and I’ve never used showgirls.”

For your humble correspondent, finding out that Tom doesn’t use showgirls in Vegas is akin to being told there’s no Easter Bunny, but we’d like to think that maybe the great man is bluffing (he’d better be!).

While Tom used to be the poster-boy for rebellion in his early career (even Elvis Presley was a fan) these days, the proud Welshman is a corner-stone of the establishment, as his recent knighthood proves.

But for Tom, meeting the Queen is like caching up with an old friend.

“I had already met her in the Sixties,” he says. “I think meeting her again might have made me realise how long she’s been around!”

As Tom prepares to make his way to Belfast in October, readers will be glad to know that the ever-present tan, the leather trousers and the decade-spanning hits will all be in full effect.

Sunday Life has one more question for the legend so we’re making it a good one.

Will there ever come a day when Tom retires the leather?

“I really don’t think so. It works, so why mess with it!” he replies, adding: “I might put a rinse in my hair though, you never know…”