Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I NEEDED THERAPY OVER MY WIFE’S DEATH
Voice star confesses he was at breaking point over loss of Linda after 59 years
SIR Tom Jones today tells how counselling pulled him back from the brink as the grief of losing his wife threatened to kill him.
The singing legend admits staring into the abyss after Linda, his beloved partner of 59 years, died of lung cancer.
There were days he could barely get out of bed and he could not even think about continuing his career.
Urged on by son Mark, Sir Tom turned to a therapist in Los Angeles who helped him find a way through the darkness.
And in an exclusive Sunday
Mirror interview, Sir Tom
– who is judging The
Voice final tonight – said it gave him the strength to keep going.
He said: “Mark helped tremendously. He said
‘there is this lady you should see’.
She coun- selled a lot of things. She said to me ‘You have got to carry on. If you don’t, you will die’. I thought of my family, my son, my daughter and my grandchildren – all of that.”
Linda – full name Lady Melinda Rose Woodward – died at Cedars Sinai Hospital in LA on April 10 last year.
Tom, her childhood sweetheart, and family were by 75-year-old Linda’s side.
In the weeks that followed he cancelled concerts and feared he would not be able to carry on with his career.
Sir Tom said there have been times when his grief was so overwhelming he could barely rally himself from bed.
He said: “When my wife passed away, God bless her, I didn’t know whether I would make it. There were days when I felt I couldn’t get up. You don’t want to get out of bed to start with.”
His remarks come months after he told how he would dream about Linda, then wake up
distraught when he realised she was not there next to him.
He said: “I hear her voice. I see her a lot at night. When I dream she’s still here and then I wake up and she’s not, that’s the hardest.”
Sir Tom, 76, admits that staying busy has been his saviour.
Ahead of tonight’s Voice final he said: “Time off would be death for me. The only time I’ll take off is when I die. I don’t take long periods of time off. I’m happier when I’m singing, than not.”
His focus now is very much on work and he is already talking of a return to The Voice next year.
Sir Tom loves the revamped ITV version of the show. He was controversially axed from the line-up in 2015, when it aired on the BBC, after four years on the panel.
POSITIVE
Looking ahead to the next series, Tom said: “We are talking about it now so it looks pretty positive. I’d hate to count my chickens before they’ve hatched but I’d like to do it. I like it and they know I do.”
Fellow coaches Jennifer Hudson and Will.i.am have also told ITV bosses they want to return – with only Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale saying he has yet to have talks.
It will be a blow to Sir Tom if his pal Gavin, 51, does not return.
The rocker has invited Sir Tom to take part in a cookery show he hopes will get picked up by a US network.
In the pilot episode Gavin prepares food as he interviews famous friends.
It hasn’t spurred Sir Tom to learn to cook. But it did cement their friendship. Recalling a fun dinner they had in LA, he said: “Gavin cooked me a nice Beef Wellington and it got a bit boozy. But I don’t drink as much as I used to. We were talking – he is so calm. It’s not a front. He is very soothing. And all of a sudden, there’s the food!”
In the two-part final of The Voice, Sir Tom was last night rooting for his protégés Into The Ark as they competed against Michelle John, Mo Adeniran and Jamie Miller.
Sir Tom plans to have Into The Ark – fellow Welshmen Dane Lloyd, 20, and Taylor Jones, 25 – join him when he starts a nine-date UK tour in June.
He says he’s even open to singing one of their songs – and likes the idea of having his own record label to promote young artists.
With a huge focus on work Sir Tom has not contemplated romance.
He was linked to Elvis Presley’s exwife Priscilla, 71, earlier this year after the pair enjoyed a night out in London. But he insists they are nothing more than long-term friends and that it’s too soon to consider dating.
And Linda, the love of his life, will never be far from his thoughts.