Tom Jones goes "Over the Top" in studio q

ladies and gentlemen Sir Tom Jones hello there hi Jeff so good to have you here thank you if you'll forgive me a bit of a pun it is unusual for a celebrity to start out a memoir the way you're started you open your story with a career-low set this at a suburban theatre in 1983 where you're kind of giving people what they want why did you start your story there well I I thought it was a good place to start rather than start at the beginning remember but why was it a good place to start I wanted I wanted people to know what had become of me you know at a certain point in in the 80s early 80s was a lot of big stars would shy away from that sort of yes less glamorous part Oh surely I mean I could have started at the beginning you know with it's not unusual and then and have said that it was great all the way up until today but there was the want the thing that happened to me was I went into Las Vegas in the late 60s and that sort of when you do two shows a night - for a month straight no days off it starts to affect your voice you don't sing as well so then you try to you try to well you become an entertainer more because you've got to talk a lot you know in order to save your voice so I mean that was alright because Elvis Presley was there and Frank Sinatra was there Sammy Davis you know some big entertainers but that that started me on a different path I didn't start out like that and then so then throughout the 70s I mean I was playing arenas it all over but then into the 80s I was playing lesser places you know it went from 20,000 and then to 10,000 and then five and him you call that period in the book you call it touring your reputation you were a Heritage act before your time yes exactly you know I was like an oldie but goodie you know I was I was doing the greatest hits I'm throwing in a few newer songs that other people had recorded just to try and keep to date but I wasn't recording them myself and a lot of people young people would be coming into the show sometimes with their parents you know and say my god why don't you record this stuff you know if I was doing a George Michael song or you know whoever was popular at the time I would be doing those songs as well as my hits and the sort of younger people who are saying well why don't you record new stuff what what is this all about and Europeans coming to America and say me said we thought you are not recording anymore because they weren't putting my records out in Europe you know the ones that I was getting some country hits with in in the States well I want to get to when you you did start to get into covers and sort of taking those perhaps the cues from those younger people asking you for four covers but but first tell me a little bit about because even no matter where you were performing you know in these middle invent or the big concert halls I mean you loved performing well sure where did that start with for you that wanting to be to be looked at and to be enjoyed when I was a kid it was the thing that came most natural to me was was to get up and sing and that was my my knockout punch if you like it was like when you're a box of you you know you have this thing if you have a knockout punch and so when I was in school for instance you know people who were there either academically smart which I wasn't or you're a sportsman you know you're either great cricketer or soccer player or rugby player you know like that but for me it was always music there was always singing and was that how did that go over in your family I mean in the place where you grew up was that an acceptable I mean we did encourage because in South Wales well Wales in general Wales is known as a land of song most people sing in Wales so when you're a child you encourage this in you know you get up and and I loved it I mean most children when they're asked to sing they'll they'll go No do I have to you know and like that me if they didn't ask me I was pulling on my mother skirt said mom when are they gonna watch me the same you know who's like that so you must you noticed I mean your voice had an effect on people from the very first time so you got up to sing what did you see in people's reaction I mean what does that look like from the stage joy you I could tell that I could make people laugh or cry or you know feel what I was putting into that song and I saw that from other sinners because there was some great singers in Wales knowing will commence clubs and pubs so I would watch these sinners you know there was a guy that used to sing my mother's eyes and we cyan't you know you would cry and I thought this guy gets you know I mean it's it's great and and I want that I want to do I want to be able to do that you wanted to be able to draw emotions out of people yeah and because because I was putting emotion into it and I think if you if you can if you can channel your personality through through your talent whatever that may be you know and I'm with me it's always music but sportsmen as well in sports people I should say if they get there they get their personality into their craft and that's what you you you should try to to do you know because some some people say all I can sing but one day you sing they become somebody else so they they feel inhibited in some way you know they can't get their personality through there but but with me it came pretty natural well and you had a natural connection because you had an uncanny you having a canny ability to know what a crowd wants and to give them what they want hmm how did you how do you know that well you gotta be a little careful of that though because sometimes you can get a little carried away with it you know you can't you can't do that you've got to be able to everything in moderation you know and try and take people to a musical journey this is what I tried to do with a stage show you know I plan my stage show so that normally I would son start with a with an up-tempo song not on a medium tempo song you know and and sort of take them through a musical journey rather than do too many ballots in a row or too many up tempos in a row you know you've got to be able - from one song into the next it has to be a journey and I've learned that and and it's it's a lot better like that I want to go back to 1965 your second song it's not unusual became a monster hit when did you know that that song was gonna be big well I did the demo I did the demonstration record for a girl called sandy shore and when I heard it back I said I have to have this song this is my son and my manager said no cuz he wrote in gordon mills and les Reed wrote the song and I said they all Gordon said I can write a million of those and you never did though I said you will not write a million of these songs I know it you know I can taste it and so much so I said if I don't get this song I go back to Wales cuz we were in London at the time and he said oh don't be so silly I said I'm telling you this is it I know it and he thought I was gonna get away with more of a rock and roll record you know more rock I mean this was a pop song but it had some you know I tried to inject some blues Indian to stuff you know what I mean there's soul even though this was a straight pop song I had I think I stuck some soul in there well there's I mean boy watching you I watched back through a lot of the videos of you in the 60s and 70s on YouTube highly recommended to anyone who hasn't done that lately it's good for the spirit and but you're an amazing dancer I mean you threw a lot of soul in just with the way you're moving around yeah well I always like to dance and I used to go to dance halls you know in the 50s and I put the two together I thought if I couldn't and I'm you got to try and do that and when I was saying to get your personality and you know try and get that into you into your singing the same thing with movement you know if you do a if you if you if you have rhythm and you have a natural ability to dance then do it and and this now of course like with Justin Beaver you beep Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake you know they they they're choreographed now but they have the ability to do it they've got you see so so that's come even stronger than when when I started you know well and your moves really had a pretty potent effect on a lot of your fans I mean things got a little crazy do you ever feel regret at picking up that first pair of panties yeah I dad well I'd the problem you see when when you sing in working men's clubs like I did in South Wales if anybody throws anything at you you you try to make something out of it you know you tried to turn it to work okay if somebody throws a beer bottle I do you take a drink out of it you know say thanks a lot and so it's like that so when he was in the Copacabana in New York in 1968 and it was a supper club and I was singing on the same there wasn't a stage as such the band was up on the stage but the singer he's on the floor where the tables are you know tables and chairs so it was a supper club so people were under me table napkins to wipe my brow cuz I used to perspire a lot so I was moving a lot and this woman actually stood up until her underwear off and handed them to me and I sort of wiped my brow and said what you don't catch cold you know when I handed him back so so you have to try to work these things easy but it backfired on me because you know after after that people would just bring them in handbags you know what I mean and throw their Tom Jones throw underwear at him you know it's not like the initial thing was was lost in the shuffle and and so therefore it came back to bite me in there you know so so then it became a joke which which the initial thing was very sexy but it it it tended to lose its sexiness and became a joke and that's the problem it must have been weird to for you to go from those heady zany you know interactions and and just with these fans poring over you the highs of being on stage to go home to your quiet you know you had a domestic life waiting for you at home you wife and a son yes that's a shift well not really because it's all it's all part and parcel of it you see because when I was saying about getting your personality into your songs I didn't have to put up a front you know I didn't have to put I didn't become another character it was me that was doing it and my wife so be doing in school you know she saw me get up in front of people she had come to birthday parties with me you know when we were teenagers you were 15 or 16 yeah yeah not 12 I didn't know you were in earlier than that because because I had TB when I was 2 out of 12 till I was 14 and I was bedridden for two years in my house and but we we know we we were sort of Fran seeing one another before that when you play kiss chase you know my wife said when you kiss me you know it wasn't like the other boys kissing me and I see when I felt the same way so that was when we were about 10 or 11 so um yeah so we've been together ever since it's it's like that and so she understands you know she understands the attraction she because she saw it when herself and she said I understand but to always remember that I am your wife you know what I mean well yeah because I mean your fame and your stardom was really you know you were a hot star in the era of of sex and excess and you address that side of things periodically in the book there have been some reviewers who want more details not not not necessarily contrition about your own behavior but you know more details about what went on and its impact on your family how do you respond to those critics well another thing the impact that happened was sometimes my wife read one thing especially and she didn't like the fact that the world knew you know that this thing had come out and she was really ticked off by that so and told me so and let me have it you know so I stood there and took it physically so she's like that she's a strong woman you know what I mean and uh and I I liked that in her and she she keeps my feet on the ground and she always has them and that's why we're still together today so that's the only thing that I wanted it to touch on there was it was the effect that it than it had had on her which I didn't like no it wasn't it wasn't there it wasn't something that I intended so therefore but like all married couples you know we we've gotten through that and we're still together if you love one another and I think a sense of humor is very important as well you know if you didn't laugh at the same things and enjoy what under this company I I think you know I don't think anybody would want to let that go I don't and she doesn't and we still there if you're just tuning in this is Q I'm Jill deacon and I'm talking to Sir Tom Jones about his memoir over the top and back again Tom you you you've set the bar high ever since you had is this early fame and acclaim for your for your hits you know it's not unusual as we played but you won't you always wanted to keep that level you you you you chased hits yeah well you know I thought well if you're recording artists you you should be able to sell records you know and and that sort of went away because I was through the 70s I was I was I was still working on what I had done in the sixties you know that carried me through the 70s but when I got into the 80s the 1980s I thought I gotta get back to recording I gotta do something here because I don't want to play these supper clubs all the time I want to get back into the mainstream here I want to get back on top 40 radio you know I want to do more TV shows I want to you know I want to do that I want to compete and I want to do new things and that happened when I did kiss you know yeah a brand new record with the art of noise it was a hot record that was the sort of moment when you found coz I know you had asked your manager where's my song how do I do this yeah Gordon Mills was was was my manager up until 1986 and you know I was always saying I want some and he saying you you doing great what do you wanted about you know you you selling out these places this any other so I got a little complacent but he was flapping you know I mean he knew that that they were not coming my way and he was he was bothered about it and you had to find your son yeah and it turned out to be as you mentioned your cover of the Prince song kiss with the avant-garde group The Art of Noise you've been going strong since that hit as I say kind of give you as you what a second wind is that fair to say yeah yeah and you've done you've done all kinds of covers since then or versions as you say my versions yeah what I mean okay so you've chosen songs that really suit your full vocal range so fifty years in what tell me what makes a great song for Tom Jones it needs to be a meaningful song it needs to be because I've always loved lyrics and so now I'm recording with the Ethan Jones who was a great producer and this is this album that I've got to know is a third one that I've done with the Ethan Johns and when I met Ethan he said why don't we get back to the start because you started with it's not unusual which was a you know a big arrangement on that song and then what's new pussycat and then the green green grass of form and then Delilah you know there are all big records so he said why don't we strip it down why don't we go in with a rhythm section like I'm sure you were doing in Wales which I was then I sang in his work them as clubs with basically a rhythm section so I said yeah I'm up for that let's give it a go so we went into the studio and he said well we'll just start off we could start off with just you and me no he said I'll play guitar and you sing if you want all we can do it with the drummer and a bass player and myself so that's what we did and we came out with some really really interesting stuff and then the reviews that was getting on the first album which was praise and blame some reviewers said I just heard Tom Jones for the first time I can hear now his personalities coming through the essence of this man is coming through in these songs which he hadn't heard before so I thought well this is it you know I don't need huge arrangements you know to get my point Krauss she was like starting over again you that you you know it reminds me of a line in your memoir you say when I come through real I'm quite hard to ignore yes it's been such a pleasure having you here thank you so much thank you

Channel: Q with Tom Power

Views: 74,606

Keywords: cbc, QTV, radio, Canadian, Broadcasting, Corporation, q on CBC, interview, Tom Jones, Over the Top, And Back Again, Gill Deacon

Id: KUCIoThpYEA

Length: 17min 53sec (1073 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2015