Tom reassures fans after surgery
WELSH legend Sir Tom Jones has undergone a successful hip operation and promised his fans he’d be “back soon”.
Famous for swinging his hips to hits including Delilah, Sex Bomb and Green Green Grass of Home, 82-year-old Sir Tom most recently appeared on ITV talent show The Voice, which was filmed earlier in 2022, and had a cameo in James Corden’s latest show, Mammals.
Posting on Twitter, Sir Tom revealed he now has two new hips and that the surgery went “very well”. He said he is “following orders” to make sure he is back soon.
Tom tweeted: “Papa has two new hips now! For all those concerned and sent in well wishes, I am pleased to report my recent surgery went very well, I’m following orders and doing my physio, so happy to say I will be back soon!”
Earlier in 2022, Tom revealed that he was waiting for surgery for his new hip. In 2017 the music legend had his left hip replaced, but his right one had started giving him trouble – so much so, he has to sit down for three-quarters of his performances.
He told MailOnline: “Yeah, I can do about four songs without sitting.”
He also revealed that he uses an inversion table – a contraption which holds you upside-down in a bid to ease back pain. Tom said: “So you go upside-down for a couple of minutes and then you come up and then you can get on and off that you think, ‘Oh, this is great’, you walk because it hasn’t settled down yet. It doesn’t back down. So I can do like four songs like that.
“Then it starts in my show, I sit down for The Windmills of Your Mind, I’ve been doing that anyway, you know, sit down for that. But then I would get up and do more. Now I don’t get up. I’ve tried singing upsidedown but all the audience are on the top of their heads.
“I do four songs, sit down and say, look, normally I would get up after this, but tonight just on the stool just to take the weight off this leg. And I found that I could sing easier sitting than standing.”
He said at the time he was not taking any painkillers and added: “I’m just biding my time until I can get in there to get a new hip.”
In the summer of 2022 Tom joined forces with Stereophonics and sold out gigs at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
The star also fell ill when touring in Hungary and had to postpone his show due to an “uncomfortable throat”. At the time there were rumours that Tom has collapsed.
But Trefforest-born Tom quickly quashed those rumours by posting a statement explaining his absence. He said: “Hello to all concerned: I travelled last night from the UK to Budapest and woke this morning with an uncomfortable throat. A specialist came to visit and diagnosed ‘viral laryngitis’. He strongly advised postponing this evening’s show and prescribed medication and vocal rest.”
“I did NOT ‘collapse’ anywhere at any time, that is pure rumour. Hopefully the inflammation will calm soon as I am looking forward to continuing my wonderful summer tour.”