Biographie

Allegedly passed out in the studio after holding the final note of "Thunderball", while recording the song from Opération Tonnerre (1965).

Elvis Presley was a frequent guest at Jones' Las Vegas shows in the 1970s. In one show, Presley came to the stage, took the microphone from Jones, and made some karate moves for the audience.

Sir Tom Jones and Dame Shirley Bassey are the only two Welsh artists to have sung title songs from the James Bond series of movies, as of 2007.

Son Mark Woodward (b. 4/11/57), with wife, Linda Trenchard. Jones was only 16 years old when he became a father for the first time. Mark is now his manager.

While visiting the United States, he met Elvis Presley in the set of Paradis hawaïen (1966) and their friendship began. Jones and Presley later met a couple of times in Las Vegas.

[after being formally knighted at Buckingham Palace] It is fantastic. It was lovely to see the Queen again. I love seeing the Queen and I have always been a royalist. She has got a great smile and her whole face lights up when she smiles. I told her I have been in show business 41 years successfully and she said to me that I had given a lot of people a lot of pleasure. I come from a coal-mining, working-class background. My father was a coal miner. Today is just tremendous. When you first come into show business and you get a hit record, it is the start of something. As time goes on, it just gets better. This is the best thing that I have had. It is a wonderful feeling, a heady feeling. Sometimes you just can't believe it, you think you have been dreaming.

On singing privately with Elvis Presley in Hawaii in 1968: There was a Kris Kristofferson song called 'Why Me, Lord' and he would sing it continuously. Once he got hold of one that he liked he would never stop. I would try and get out of the suite, because sometimes he would stay on in Vegas, and I was having to do two shows a night, and I'd be singing with him and I'd say, 'I've got to go. The sun's coming up and I've got to rest my voice because I've been singing all night with you.' He'd say OK, and I'd go, and just when I got to the door he'd start again. 'Uh-why me Lord, uh - what have I uh-ever done ...' We'd already done it 30 or 40 times.

He didn't become worldly. He was always in his own world, and enjoying it. When that worked, fine. He wanted guys around him, wanted to create his own thing, which was a simple life. He loved to play [American] football and he had his own team. But because he was Elvis Presley, no one wanted to tackle him hard.

It's one extreme to the other. I've had a lot of crosses and Bibles given to me but then one woman made a ceramic penis - she figured that's what mine looked like, I suppose.

I'm a lyric man - I'm always looking for meaningful songs.