Tom Jones - the Life

by Sean Smith

  Tom moved on from there to guest in an equally popular show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which starred Will Smith before he became one of the world’s biggest movie stars. Tom was cast as a guardian angel to Will’s best friend, Carlton Banks, played by Alfonso Ribeiro. Carlton’s ‘Tom dance’ to ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and their subsequent duet were highlights of the season.

  Tom’s image had almost become an anti-image: keep nothing back from the public and be open to any question. He was an accessible star, whether it was in the roles he took or the interviews he gave. The famous shock jock Howard Stern, for instance, wanted to ask Tom about the size of his penis. Howard had plenty to say on the subject, but, thankfully, Tom had nothing to add. Tom’s attitude was simple: ‘You don’t have to have a moody bloody thing going or be aloof. If you have a basic talent and you do it, people can see it and hear it. I don’t have to go thinking about my image.’

  These guest-starring roles and his adoption of ironic self-effacement were demonstrating that Tom was climbing down from his ivory penthouse in Las Vegas. He seemed forever to be on the brink of a successful comeback. The million-dollar cheques that still found their way into his bank account suggested he wasn’t exactly on skid row, though.

  The most vital ingredient in any revival, however, remained his voice. The momentum would stall if he began to decline vocally. On tour in the States, the panty count showed signs of slowing down. Tom was now trying to reach young men who were discovering his music for the first time and didn’t just remember him as someone their mums used to like.

  The critics were beginning to realise that Tom bridged the years in a way that other great stars did not. Michael Saunders summed it up in the Boston Globe, when he reviewed Tom’s concert at the South Shore Music Circus in August 1993, ‘Tom Jones is the music missing link between eras.’

  He concluded, ‘He capped the night with his cover of Prince’s “Kiss”, the song that awakened interest among younger listeners. It was authentically definitely funky, and punctuated with a crotch grab far more substantial than Michael Jackson’s, and in an entirely different league than Madonna’s.’

  Tom signed with the Interscope record label to make a new album. Interscope had made its name with urban artists, but was diversifying into other areas of music. Tom was joining Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre on the roster, which again added to his credibility in a younger marketplace.

  Tom was desperate for it to be a success. He decided to call the album, somewhat clunkily, The Lead and How to Swing It, a play on the familiar expression ‘swinging the lead’, which was one of his father’s favourites and meant to shirk or skive. Tom surrounded himself with some of the best current talent, including The Verve’s producer Martin Glover and Teddy Riley, who worked on the Michael Jackson album Dangerous. He also involved more established names, like Jeff Lynne from ELO and Trevor Horn, who had been responsible for many of the hits of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Pet Shop Boys.

  The stand-out track was another duet, this time with the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Tori Amos on the Diane Warren song ‘I Wanna Get Back with You’, in which her gentle ethereal vocal contrasted effectively with Tom’s soulful growl. One critic said, ‘Jones sounds like Otis Redding’s ghost in a remarkable performance’, which would have given him huge pleasure. All the power and passion was still there.

  With the benefit of hindsight, this should have been the lead single from the album and not an afterthought released when no one was interested. Instead, ‘If I Only Knew’, produced by Horn, was strongly sung and a top twenty hit, but ultimately forgettable. Tom Jones rapping was a step too far for many.

  Perhaps the album was too conspicuously trendy, because, despite encouraging reviews, the sales were ultimately disappointing. The Washington Post noted, a little harshly, ‘The album’s success may well hinge on whether people young enough to know the meaning of phrases like “chill in the crib” will smile or cringe when they hear Grandpa Jones utter them.’ The Lead and How to Swing It failed to make the top fifty in the UK, although it was number one in Finland.

  Tom still dreamed of that elusive hit album, but all he could do was be patient and continue to be relevant. He sang the plaintive ‘Tennessee Waltz’ on The Chieftains’ album The Long Black Veil and hosted the 1995 American Music Awards, alongside Queen Latifah and country star Lorrie Morgan. Best of all, he played a cameo role in Tim Burton’s comedy sci-fi movie Mars Attacks!

  Tom had been performing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas when the director, a long-time fan, came backstage and asked him to do it. Burton explained, ‘You feel as though he’d deal with any situation with the same kind of strength, whether it was a concert or a Martian invasion. He’d just get in there and go for it.’

  Tom played himself, singing ‘It’s Not Unusual’, of course, when Martians invade the Las Vegas casino where he is performing. He turns around and suddenly his three backing singers are transformed into little green figures. He has to lead a small group of survivors to safety, flying out from a small airfield near the city. For the closing scene, Tom is on a cliff-top, with an eagle perched on his arm, singing a reprise of ‘It’s Not Unusual’ – then the credits roll. It was very funny, utterly camp and perfectly in keeping with Tom’s developing flair for self-parody.

  Tom was seriously considering moving back to the UK permanently in the mid-nineties. Mark and Donna made the move in 1995, when they bought a mansion in Henley-on-Thames, so their children could be educated in Britain. Alexander, who had the second name John, like his grandfather and great-grandfather before him, was now twelve and ready for senior school.

  While they still owned the house in Welsh St Donats, Linda, conversely, was spending more time in the US. She had tired of life in South Wales, which proved just as monotonous as Los Angeles but with more rain. They eventually sold Llwynddu for £650,000. Many had assumed that the house was a symbol of marriage problems, especially as its purchase seemed to coincide with Tom’s paternity case. If there had been any hiccups, they were now resolved.

  Occasionally, Linda showed up on tour. In Atlantic City, for instance, she went shopping with a $1,000 bill Tom had given her to buy whatever she wanted that afternoon while he conducted a stream of interviews. Shopping, it seemed, was an acceptable way to spend money; gambling was not.

  Tom recorded the follow-up to The Lead and How to Swing It at the world-famous Hit Factory studios in Manhattan at the end of 1996. He wanted to move away from the more electro-pop sounds of his first Interscope album and include more musicians in the studio, evoking the live atmosphere for which he was so famous. The sessions were produced by the highly respected musician Steve Jordan, who had begun a long career as the drummer in Stevie Wonder’s backing band and subsequently worked with Keith Richards and The Blues Brothers.

  Together, he and Tom adapted some twenty songs with a mainly soul feel, including songs by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and the George Jones country ballad ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’, a song made for a mighty vocal. Tom’s interesting take on the latter was that country and soul could be very close, thereby revealing the secret of his classic songs like ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’ and ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ – they were basically country songs that he sang as a soul singer. That was his edge.

  Excited by the recording sessions, Tom sent twenty songs to the record company with a view to picking the best twelve to go on the as yet untitled album. Interspace didn’t like the product, being unable to visualise a market for the material. They couldn’t identify a single. It was hugely disappointing and the songs from New York have never been released. Unsurprisingly, Tom left Interspace.

  He needed to regroup, continue touring, take part in charity singles like ‘Perfect Day’ and wait for his next opportunity. He was one of twenty-seven singers who performed on the BBC Children in Need 1997 single ‘Perfect Day’. An all-star version of the Lou Reed song, it featured the composer himself, as well as Bono, Elton John, David Bowie and Ta
mmy Wynette. Tom sang the line ‘You’re going to reap just what you sow’ and put more emotion into his segment than the rest of the cast combined.

  Tom always seemed to have so many projects on the go that it was impossible to predict which one might trigger new momentum. Appearing on The Last Resort had been one such unexpected event. Now it was the turn of a low-budget British film called The Full Monty. Anne Dudley, from The Art of Noise, had been commissioned to write the score and she wanted to use the Randy Newman song ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ for the pivotal last scene.

  The film tells the story of six unemployed men in Sheffield who decide to cure their financial woes by forming an all-male striptease act. The difference between them and other performers, like the Chippendales, was that they would go ‘the full monty’ and take every stitch off. The movie ends with the six men stripping off until all they have left on is their hats, which they throw into the air. It is a joyful, uplifting scene.

  Originally, Anne was going to use the Joe Cocker version of ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ from 1986, but the director decided it sounded too serious. A more fun, tongue-in-cheek interpretation from Tom Jones would strike exactly the right note.

  She phoned Tom and asked him to do it, explaining that she was working with a shoestring budget. The whole film was being made for $3.5 million – petty cash for most movies. Tom recorded the song in an afternoon while he was on tour around the UK.

  The film was an astonishing success all over the world, taking more than $250 million at the box office – a producer’s dream. As a result, thousands of people left cinemas pretending to be Tom Jones singing ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’. He recalled, ‘Who knew that this film would do what it did? It was supposed to be a low-budget, small British film, but it became a worldwide smash, so I was thrilled to be part of it.’

  Ironically, considering the number of ill-judged or disappointing forays into acting that Tom has made, here was a film he could have appeared in and he wouldn’t have had to play himself. The publicity he received from his association with it was as significant as singing What’s New Pussycat? had been thirty years previously. While it wasn’t the title track, his song was effectively the film’s theme tune.

  Tom was invited to sing it at the 1998 Brit Awards at Earls Court. More significantly, he was asked to duet with Robbie Williams, who, at the time, was among the coolest young pop acts in the UK. Two months earlier, the song ‘Angels’ had entered the charts for the first time and transformed Robbie’s career.

  Robbie Williams was just one of the younger generation of stars who regarded Tom as a musical hero. He used to study old footage from the sixties and seventies of Tom performing his hits and try to copy him. He always loved ‘Delilah’, believing it to be the all-time best song to get you out of bed on a Sunday morning when suffering from a Saturday night hangover. The only problem for Robbie was that he had supported Port Vale Football Club all his life and ‘Delilah’ was always the song sung on the terraces by arch-rivals Stoke City.

  When Robbie finally appeared on stage with his hero, it was as if they had been singing together for years. Their duet of songs from The Full Monty was the best thing to have happened to that tired awards show in years. Robbie pranced about the stage in black leather and Cuban heels – an outfit remarkably similar to the one Tom had worn on The Last Resort when he first sang ‘Kiss’ on TV.

  Robbie was having the time of his life. He began with a version of the Cockney Rebel seventies classic ‘Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)’. Then Tom arrived to sing ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’, which featured Robbie dancing like a clockwork toy that had been overwound. It was a tongue-in-cheek tour de force from a master showman. One reviewer described it as a bull being tormented by a mosquito. They finished with ‘Land of a Thousand Dances’, which Tom had been performing for more than thirty years. He could have sung it in his sleep, but even the record executives sitting smugly at their tables stood up to dance and applaud.

  Tom gave Robbie substance and in return Robbie made Tom appear up to the minute. It did wonders for Robbie’s confidence when Tom told him he was a great singer. After the show, Robbie declared, ‘Those five minutes eleven seconds on stage with Tom Jones were the happiest of my life.’ The Brits proved once and for all that Tom Jones really was cool. The night also set in motion the album that would become the most successful of Tom’s entire career.

  19

  My Best Friend’s Funeral

  Whenever Tom saw Dai Perry, it was as if they still lived a few doors away from each other. Dai’s partner, Glynis McKenna, who always called him Dave, loved watching the two friends enjoy one another’s company. ‘It would be just like they had seen each other only last night. They would pick up where they had left off. Tom has got a marvellous memory and he dredged names up and Dave would tell him how they were going on. It might be somebody from primary school days and Tom would say, “Do you ever see so and so?” and Dave could tell him the last time he saw them. It was lovely to see them together. A lot of the conversation went over my head because I wasn’t around in those days, but it was fascinating listening to them. They were like two schoolboys together.’

  The two men kept in close touch after the incident in Caracas. Tom used to phone every week or two from the US and, when he was able to set foot in the UK, he always made sure he visited Dai or invited him to meet up in London. Dai’s youngest daughter Gemma remembers, as a little girl, getting up from bed because she heard voices downstairs. She walked down to the lounge and there was Tom Jones sitting on the settee: ‘I was just like, “Oh.” In those days, it was just like “Oh, him again.” Thinking about it now, when I’m older, it was a big thing.’

  Tom had bought the house in Lower Alma Terrace for Dai after he married his second wife, Kay. It was just around the corner from Laura Street. Tom has a reputation for being less than generous, but that wasn’t the case where his best friends were concerned. He always looked after Dai. When they met up, he would give him a brown envelope containing £500. Nothing was said. It was just a nod between pals, and the right amount not to cause embarrassment.

  Tom also paid for Dai’s regular trips to the US, where he would spend his holidays in Las Vegas or Los Angeles. In the early days, before they divorced, he took Kay. After his divorce, he travelled with Glynis, who was Brian Blackler’s cousin.

  Glynis had already met Tom. She had walked into the lounge one day and there were Tom and Mark, sitting with Dai, watching a rugby match on television. It was all so perfectly normal, she never had the chance to be star-struck.

  The first time she travelled with Dai to see Tom was in 1993, when they stayed in Las Vegas, where he was appearing at Bally’s, which was formerly the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Tom played fourteen nights there, before they moved on to the Snowbird resort near Salt Lake City and then to Denver, where he was performing at the famous Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre. It gave Glynis a glimpse into Tom’s nomadic yet luxurious lifestyle.

  They didn’t stay in his suite, because Tom had a daily routine far removed from a normal person’s. He was getting up in the late afternoon, as Glynis was finishing sunbathing. ‘He slept through the day and he would be up all night. When he came off stage, he would have a shower and change and then if anybody had come backstage to visit with him, he would have a drink and be sociable. Then we would go and eat, usually at one of the restaurants in the hotel. We used to sit at a big round table just talking and reminiscing. Sometimes there would be a lounge show Tom wanted to see, so we would go and watch that. I don’t think Tom knows what time it is in Las Vegas.

  ‘I like the sun, so sometimes when we had eaten and Tom, Dave and Lloyd Greenfield were chatting, I would say, “I’ll leave you to it. I’m going up.” And they would walk me to the lift and then go back and have a few bevvies.’

  After twenty-five years in Las Vegas, Tom had a daily, or more precisely nightly, routine that worked for him. He was over fifty now and long ago realised he neede
d to look after himself if he was going to maintain the high standards he had set himself as a young man. Glynis observes, ‘He is disciplined. He got up at 4ish and exercised. Then he would breakfast – cereal and fruit – but would have nothing more before the show. He would never drink before a show.

  ‘At dinner he would eat anything, but he always chose a nice wine. He is quite a connoisseur of wine. He would finish with a brandy and a cigar. Then out came the champagne.’ He was never ostentatious about his wealth or fame – he wasn’t a click your fingers at the waiter sort of star.

  Dai and Glynis would either watch a show from a booth or stand at the side of the stage. The entertainment always began with a comedian, who would have the audience roaring with laughter – except for the visitors from Wales, who found the American sense of humour passed them by. Tom would sing at least twenty songs and come back and do three or more for an encore. Glynis recalls, ‘As soon as he sang “Kiss”, the audience knew they weren’t going to get any more.’ Her favourite from his show at the time was ‘Walking in Memphis’. The song, a big hit for Cher, has often featured in Tom’s stage act and he sang it during the final of the 2014 series of The Voice.

  One night, Glynis turned round and saw Priscilla Presley sitting behind them, watching the show. On another, Liza Minnelli, who was in her own show further down the strip, came backstage and then joined them for dinner. ‘She was really bubbly and friendly,’ recalls Glynis. It was all a long way from Treforest.