Talking With Tom
Monday, December 19th, 2005After Tom’s show at MGM Friday night December 16, we had the terrific experience of spending time with him, having a real conversation, telling him about tomjonesinternational.com and talking to him about a wide range of things.
He was with Don Archell, his friend and personal assistant, and we were joined a bit later by Mary, a long-time fan who is our friend and a friend of Tom and Don, too.
First, we took care of a bit of business.
“Tom, we have this t-shirt for you and one for you, too, Don.”
They thanked us and Tom held up the tomjonesinternational.com tee and said, “Oh, this has my name on it. I couldn’t wear it.”
“But will you pose for a photo with it?” we asked and, obviously, he did.
We told him about the website, why we started it and what we hope to accomplish. We told him about the just-completed fan survey “designed to help us learn who the fans are, their age ranges, how often they’ve seen you and what they want to see on the site.”
We mentioned that we’d shortly be compiling the survey results, adding that fans have plenty of opportunity on the site to ask questions and state opinions.
On that topic, we asked, “Tom, do you really care about what the fans think?”
He looked genuinely surprised at the question for a moment and said quite firmly, “Of course I do.”
Ellen had the “Reborn Vinyl” handbag shown on the home page of the website and took it out, asking him to sign it. “Why, is this a record? What is it?” he asked and, spotting the Parrot label, “Oh, Parrot was my American label. Decca was in Europe.”
When he realized what it was, he wanted to know all about it — Who made it? Where did we get it? — and then he signed it.
We talked about a few of the questions we and other fans have — basic curiosity — like, “What’s your favorite movie?”
He quickly answered, The Wild Bunch.
“Anything else?”
“Yes, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. [Note: 1947; Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney; available on NetFlix]
“What about a somewhat newer movie like, say, The Sixth Sense?” Ursula wanted to know.
“Oh, I liked that, but the end was very sad,” he said, going on to talk about what a “great guy” his friend Bruce Willis is.
Who’s his favorite singer? No hesitation here — “Jerry Lee Lewis.”
“Anyone more modern?”
“Me,” he said with a laugh, but explained that Jerry Lee has a “certain cadence to his music that’s unbelievable.”
“You are in hell,” Ellen asked, deftly ripping off a question she’d seen someone asked in a Rolling Stone interview. “What’s the soundtrack there?”
Again, no hesitation, and a shrug as if to say “of course” he answered, Great Balls of Fire.
“Has anyone in the family inherited your voice?” Ursula asked.
“Yes,” he replied, “Mark and Alexander both have great voices.”
“Do they sing?”
“Well, no. I guess they lack the…….” He searched for a word.
“Drive?” Ellen said.
“Yes, that’s it. They don’t want to do it like I do,” he replied.
Ursula asked if Tom has seen Usher, noting that Usher has some of the same kind of sexual energy that Tom has, even though it’s not as great as Tom’s and his voice isn’t as good.
“I’ve never seen him in person,” Tom said. “I heard they are throwing underwear at him, too.”
When Ursula mentioned she’d just seen Andrea Bocelli and that he was “fabulous,” Tom said, “He’s very good, but he’s a tenor, you know, so he doesn’t have as much range as I do, as I’m a baritone.”
Then, switching gears: “We want to tell you about someone at the show tonight, a [Tom Jones] ‘virgin,’” we said, and told him about Jeff who was there with his wife; the man who as a child used to sing What’s New Pussycat? in the tub and is still teased about that by his mom.
In addition to noting with a smile that “he likes a virgin,” Tom was delighted with the story.
We talked about the recent TV shows about him shown here in the US — the PBS show (“That was a rehash of the old Canadian series,” he said. “Not really very good.”) and the Biography show which, due to being on the road, he hadn’t had the opportunity to see. He did, however, want to know who was interviewed and what we thought of it.
Don was even kind enough to sing a few bars of The Wayward Wind, his own European hit of years ago.
We talked about some of the songs Tom sings. He likes Latin music “but I can only sing in English.”
Ellen requested he add Baptism By Fire to the show explaining that the first two lines of the song are just so honest and moving and, therefore, very touching.
Here, as we had the entire time, we noticed that Tom was really listening. In fact, Ursula said later he “really seemed moved” by what Ellen had said.
And, in the end, that’s what’s important — Tom Jones does care about his fans and what they think. He is open and much more accessible than so many other performers.
We left amid a flurry of good holiday wishes, some hugs and kisses and promises to “see you in January.”
We cannot wait.
Ellen & Ursula
One of the other joys, for us, is meeting new people who have never seen Tom perform. There was a young couple, Jeff and Lisa (left) from California who sat at table five (dead center stageside). Jeff was so psyched about seeing Tom. They had lucked into the seats that same night and he was excitedly us about how he used to sing What’s New Pussycat? as a child in the bathtub. He had never seen our singer in person before. 
We stand on either side of Tom and I put my arm around his back again. I’m loving it — shamelessly, recklessly loving it. He has such a strong back and he’s so muscular. There’s no way this guy feels 65, he’s so firm and has so much toned muscle on his frame. I could feel his warmth through the thin fabric, the lining of the jacket was slippery so when I squeezed him it slid over his lower back a bit and it felt sooooo good. I could feel the strength of his muscles underneath (insert cold shower break).
