Tom: I blame myself for wife Linda’s death Grief is brought home by her favourite song
May has week to save job as Brexit rebels gang up
SIR Tom Jones blamed himself for the death of his beloved wife – and said a Bob Dylan song rammed home his guilt.
The music icon crumbled with grief after losing Linda, his wife of 59 years, to lung cancer.
One of her favourite songs was Dylan’s What Good Am I?, which Sir Tom has recorded and performed countless times.
But he has revealed the lyrics left him asking whether he could have done more to save Linda, 75.
He admitted: “That song is the one I was scared of. She loved it.
“But the song is, ‘ What good am I if I’m like all the rest, if I don’t just turn away when I see how you’re dressed’. It’s like ‘ Why couldn’t I have stopped it?’
“I was reading into the lyrics thinking, ‘Jesus Christ, was I partly to blame? Should I have woken up before? You start to think, ‘ What if I had forced her to go to the doctors?’ Because she didn’t go.
“You think ‘s***, maybe I should have said she had to’. So that song is very touching.”
THERAPY
Delilah star Sir Tom, 78, made the admission as he gave details of therapy he had after Linda died.
He went on: “I saw a lady in LA, told her about the song and she said, ‘ That’s the first one you should try, get the one you’re scared of over with’. I got some of my musicians together and that was the first step.”
Sir Tom – back on TV last night as a judge on BBC1’s The Voice – took time off after losing Linda.
Now, almost three years on, the wounds are healing.
He added: “Time is a healer. When something like that happens it’s so devastating you don’t know how to deal with everything.
“But you give it time... things sink in and you realise this is the way it’s going to be.
“There are friends who have been through this, of course. That’s another thing about growing old I don’t particularly like – that you lose friends.
“They aren’t here any more. But the great thing about going on and doing something you love is you start to make new friends. So it’s worked out.
It’s all right. It’s good. And everybody helps me.”
Sir Tom fell for Linda at high school in Pontypridd, South Wales. She stood by him over 60 years of fame, fortune and scandal as a string of women were linked to the singer.
But no one could compare to Linda. And asked whether he will find love again, he said: “I don’t think so, no.” THERESA May has a week to save her premiership as Tory Brexit rebels gang up to destroy her.
Yesterday former party leadership contender Sir John Redwood told BBC Radio 4 that the PM had no chance to get her deal through Parliament. He said quitting the EU with no deal would “work just fine” and scare stories about food and drug shortages were “idiotic”.
But Tory Remainer Ken Clarke claimed no deal would be “a car crash”. MPs resume debating Mrs May’s Brexit deal on Wednesday ahead of a vote a week later.
If Mrs May loses – as expected – she will face a vote of no-confidence by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. If that went against her there would be an election. And she has promised Tory MPs she will not lead them into it.
Her Brexit deal was backed by Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who said the alternatives were “playing with fire”.