Busking his dad’s tunes, the homeless son of Tom Jones
WITH his cardboard sign pleading for help and open guitar case welcoming change, he looks like any other homeless busker.
But passers-by stop and stare when they hear his rendition of Tom Jones’s hits, because his voice sounds remarkably familiar.
This is not exactly a surprise – the 29year-old performing on the streets of a working- class New Jersey town is the Welsh pop legend’s illegitimate son.
Jonathan Berkery, who calls himself ‘Jon Jones’ as a tribute to his father, has a repertoire that includes Sir Tom’s hits such as Delilah and It’s Not Unusual.
He was born after Sir Tom had a threeday fling with Katherine Berkery, a then 24-year-old model, in New York in October 1987.
But Jon – who sleeps in a homeless shelter in Hoboken, New Jersey and has a part-time job stacking shelves for £5.50an-hour – revealed he has never met his famous father despite multiple efforts to contact him. ‘I don’t want anything from my dad, just his recognition,’ he told the Mail on Sunday.
‘Not having a father growing up was tough. All I ever wanted was his love. People think I look and sound like a younger version of my dad. I sing all his songs. People stop and stare as soon as I start singing.’
But the singer, now 77, denied he was Jon’s father until it was proved by a court- ordered paternity test in 1989. Sir Tom, now worth an estimated £155million, agreed to pay £1,700 maintenance per month for his upkeep until Jon turned 18.
Although the money was taken care of, there was no emotional support or presence from his father. He added: ‘There was never a birthday card, a single Christmas card, a call. I grew up with images of dad all around. But my calls and emails have gone unreturned. He wants nothing to do with me.’
Sir Tom, who has admitted sleeping with up to 250 women a year at the height of his fame, did not publicly acknowledge Jon’s existence until 2008, when he said: ‘It wasn’t something I planned. I was tricked. I fell for the seduction’. His son said: ‘Those words hurt. It wasn’t my choice to be born. You don’t get to be as famous as my father without being prepared to hurt people along the way’.
Jon said his father’s rejection helped explain his drug-and-alcohol-fuelled teenage years and meant he ‘couldn’t form proper relationships with girls’.
After his efforts to contact his father went unanswered, the busker considered confronting him at a concert and even thought of auditioning for The Voice where Sir Tom is a mentor. ‘All I want is the chance to sit down with him,’ he said. ‘I truly don’t want anything from him.’
Sir Tom’s agent did not respond to a request for comment.