Tom Jones is one of the living legends of music. With hit songs like \u201cIt\u2019s Not Unusual,\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s a Lady\u201d and \u201cWhat\u2019s New Pussycat?,\u201d the singer has been delighting audiences for decades.<\/p>\n
But his most recent performance is leaving people in tears, after Jones dedicated the song to his late wife of 59 years.<\/p>\n
Tom Jones, now 83, is a mentor on the hit singing competition show The Voice in the UK. But on Saturday\u2019s episode, it wasn\u2019t the contestants, but Jones himself, who took the spotlight with a song.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis song is very important to me,\u201d Jones introduced. \u201cI try to pick songs that mean a lot to me. And this song is trying to tell you that people that you love, sometimes they need to be backed up. You need to give them strength and encouragement.\u201d<\/p>\n
From his chair, he then gave a beautiful performance of his song \u201cI Won\u2019t Crumble With You If You Fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emotional performance was enough to make his fellow judges tear up, but it was made even more bittersweet after Jones explained the song\u2019s inspiration: it was a tribute to his wife, Melinda Trenchard, who died of cancer in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife, you know, she was dying of lung cancer, so I said, you know, I was always able to fix stuff, to do things if she needed me I was always there,\u201d Jones explained.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u201dShe said, \u2018Don\u2019t crumble with me, don\u2019t fall now, you\u2019ve done everything you can, you must carry on and do what you do.\u2019 So I put the song, when I heard it, it was like it was written for this situation. It\u2019s a lovely song.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other judges \u2014 Anne-Marie, Olly Murs and will.i.am \u2014 are all visibly emotional. Anne-Marie even had to leave the set because she was in tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to walk off, not because it was bad, [but] because it was so emotional,\u201d she told Express. \u201cI think this is like a testament to him and why he has been able to stay around [for] so long because he feels every word he says and every song he releases he means it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Jones and his wife Melinda Trenchard met at a young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember her playing marbles and I thought, \u2018\u2019My God, what great legs she\u2019s got,\u2019\u201d Jones recalled meeting Melinda in a Radio 2 documentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started dancing together when we were 15. She would look great. She was the best-looking girl around there and we got together. It was magic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Singer Tom Jones and his wife Melinda (Linda). (Photo by \u00a9 Hulton-Deutsch Collection\/CORBIS\/Corbis via Getty Images)
\nThe high school sweethearts got married when they were just 16, and had a son shortly after. They remained married for the next 59 years.<\/p>\n
While that\u2019s a remarkably long time for a celebrity marriage, it was far from a storybook romance. Jones, a world-famous sex symbol at the height of his career, was known for having many extramarital affairs, and said he once slept with 250 women a year.<\/p>\n
Despite this, the couple had an agreement, and Melinda stayed faithful to him for decades, despite his infidelity.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The affairs were] never discussed, I was never put on the spot,\u201d Jones said in an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show. \u201cLinda is a wonderful person, and she would never put me on the spot. She loves being married to me, and I love being married to her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Welsh singing star Tom Jones pictured with his wife Linda after arriving from France, 8th April 1965. (Photo by Staff\/Mirrorpix\/Getty Images)
\n\u201cI feel alive when [Tom] comes through the door, whatever the time of day or night is,\u201d Melinda reportedly said of her husband in a rare interview.<\/p>\n
Though their marriage apparently had its ups and downs, there\u2019s no denying that after nearly 60 years of marriage, they were an extremely important part of each other\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Melinda died after a \u201cshort but fierce\u201d battle with lung cancer. Jones, now a widower, was left heartbroken and didn\u2019t know if he could go on singing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen my wife passed away, I didn\u2019t think I could sing,\u201d Sir Tom explained. \u201cWhen you\u2019re emotional, you can\u2019t sing, your voice closes up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certain songs I wouldn\u2019t do. But you have to try and get things in the right perspective. Feeling emotional; use it to your advantage and put it into the song,\u201d he added. \u201cIt took me a while. Took me a few months to try and see if I could sing. I got some of my musicians around and tried a few songs. But it was very emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six years after his wife\u2019s death, Tom Jones is still going strong, and has clearly put his heartbreak and grief into his music. Over the years, however, he has been dealing with some health problems.<\/p>\n
In 2018, a bacterial infection forced the legendary singer to cancel two shows. Jones was admitted to the hospital but was \u201dextremely and sorry\u201d that he couldn\u2019t perform for a while.<\/p>\n
Right now, Jones is struggling to walk and awaits an operation. He has a bad hip and is currently walking with a stick, according to the Express. During his recent tour in the U.K., he has been forced to make some adjustments regarding his performance on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can do about four songs\u2026 and I can walk on [stage],\u201d Sir Tom said and added:<\/p>\n
\u201cI have an inversion table in my dressing room, so you go upside down for a couple of minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go on that, and you think, \u2018This is great\u2019 because you walk, and it hasn\u2019t settled down yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I can do like four songs like that, and then it starts to hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watching his performance on The Voice, there\u2019s no denying his talent, or the deep love he had for his late wife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tom Jones is one of the living legends of music. With hit songs like \u201cIt\u2019s Not Unusual,\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s a Lady\u201d and \u201cWhat\u2019s New Pussycat?,\u201d the singer has… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n