{"id":3082,"date":"2011-08-03T15:44:32","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T22:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3082"},"modified":"2011-08-03T16:26:58","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T23:26:58","slug":"tom-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/tom-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"TOM JONES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

TOM JONES<\/h1>\n

An unrepentant sex bomb showing his spiritual side? It\u2019s not unusual<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tom Jones\u2019 record label asked\u00a0if he\u2019d consider recording an album of gospel hymns\u2014something nice and pretty that the company could sell around Christmastime. What he gave them was something very different. Praise & Blame<\/em> is indeed an album built on spiritual themes, but its gutbucket blues-based rock sound is hardly holiday easy-listening fare. Jones and producer Ethan Johns recorded live in the studio, the Welsh-born singer and his small backing band bashing out the tunes together. \u201cIt was all done in one room, there wasn\u2019t even a control booth,\u201d Jones says. \u201cEven the engineers were working in the same room as\u00a0we were.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result demonstrates Jones\u2019 determination to continue evolving as an artist, just as he has for 45 years. He established himself in the 1960s and \u201970s as a swinging sex symbol essaying orchestrated pop songs like \u201cWhat\u2019s New Pussycat?\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Not Unusual,\u201d then veered into country music in the 1980s before returning to the pop charts with his version of Prince\u2019s \u201cKiss.\u201d Since then he has remained thoroughly engaged in modern music. Who else could have enjoyed a massive worldwide hit with a sleek dance track called \u201cSex Bomb\u201d at age 60? Now Praise & Blame<\/em> shows us yet another new facet of Jones\u2019 talent. \u201cI think some people will be surprised, yes,\u201d says Jones, now 70. \u201cThis is a deeper, more spiritual thing.\u201d We caught up with Jones at home in California to discuss matters spiritual, secular and even sexual.<\/p>\n

How was the recording experience? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever recorded that stripped-down before. I\u2019ve stood in the middle of a rhythm section and sung from there, but usually the producer wants separation [among the instruments] so that in case you make a mistake you can just punch it in. Ethan didn\u2019t care about separation. If it wasn\u2019t right, we\u2019d do it again. That was it. I used an old microphone that I\u2019d never used before, a fantastic RCA that looked like a big square mic you\u2019d see used in old radio shows, and the other instruments were bleeding into it sometimes. We didn\u2019t use headphones, either. It was all in the room.<\/p>\n

Did that change how you sang? <\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a difference. When a track is laid down [before the vocal], you have to sing to that track. You can\u2019t improvise much, you can just move forward or back a little. Ethan said, \u201cEven if you don\u2019t sing it exactly as it\u2019s written, if you cut out two bars or if there\u2019s an odd bar, we\u2019ll watch you and listen and come with you.\u201d That makes you feel more free. You feel like you\u2019re creating something from a plain canvas, if you like. When you are painting something, you\u2019re starting from scratch, and that\u2019s what this felt like. If somebody wasn\u2019t feeling it, they would say so. The drummer would say, \u201cI\u2019m not feeling right yet, maybe we could slow it down.\u201d We were all putting our two cents in. We worked more as a group as opposed to as a singer with some musicians. I don\u2019t think you can do all kinds of music like that. You need pop records and dance records, and sometimes it\u2019s better to have an artificial sound than a real sound. But for this we all felt we wanted to get as real as possible.<\/p>\n

What drew you to these songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been a lyric man. I love lyrics. I love story songs. We knew they could be slow or uptempo, but they needed to be songs that made you think. Lyrics are very important. I don\u2019t think you can put this album on and just have it as background music. The lyrics will make you say, \u201cOh, what\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Are you a religious person?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been God-fearing, always. There\u2019s a song on the album called \u201cDid Trouble Me,\u201d and I\u2019ve experienced what that song says\u2014that when you\u2019re feeling a little too sure of yourself, God will give you a slap. Something will happen to make you think. It makes you feel that you\u2019re not invulnerable. People say, \u201cTom, your voice is as strong as ever,\u201d and I\u2019ll think, \u201cIt is<\/em> strong.\u201d Then I start to get a little laryngitis and I think, \u201cI got too bloody cocky there.\u201d God is giving me a little, \u201cHello, excuse me!\u201d You have to have confidence, but you\u2019re still not completely your own master. There\u2019s somebody else that you have to answer to, and you can\u2019t take all the credit.<\/p>\n

Can a spiritual song have an element of sensuality?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think so. The tone of your voice, the way you sing, it still seems sexy to me. It doesn\u2019t sound bland or mechanical\u2014it\u2019s human. Sex is part of humanity, sex is a human feeling, and it\u2019s got something to do with that. There is a warmth in it that makes you feel good. A song like \u201cDon\u2019t Knock\u201d has a message but there is a certain amount of sex involved. Gospel music is like that. In gospel churches, when people start jumping up and down and passing out and stuff, I think it\u2019s got a sexual element to it.<\/p>\n

How does it feel to be 70?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been 70 before, so I don\u2019t know. (laughs<\/em>) I feel great. A little slower, you know. But I don\u2019t feel different. My attitude is basically the same. I\u2019ve learned more over the years. I remember Frank Sinatra was worried about me. He said, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to sing that hard<\/em> all the time.\u201d I said, \u201cBut that\u2019s what I do.\u201d He said, \u201cHey, you don\u2019t have to believe me.\u201d But he was right. I did run into trouble here and there because I was singing too hard, too much. If you relax on certain songs, you can be more faithful to the song than if you tried to hammer it. There\u2019s a time and place for light and shade.<\/p>\n

How has your voice evolved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s become deeper and richer. Life itself, the experiences that you have, that all comes out in your personality\u2014and your voice is a part of your personality. I\u00a0don\u2019t think this record would have been the same 30 years ago. I don\u2019t think my voice would have been right for the\u00a0lyrical content.<\/p>\n

What are your hopes for the future? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I want to try different things. You never\u00a0know where the next thing comes from,\u00a0and I like that. If something comes up that I like and that I feel like I can do, I hope\u00a0that I\u2019m allowed to do it. I\u2019ll be happy as long as I\u2019m not pushed into one corner or looked at for just one thing. You do one \u201cSex Bomb\u201d and that\u2019s it, some things overshadow everything else. When I started off I thought my versatility was going to be an asset,\u00a0but sometimes people get confused by it.<\/p>\n

They say, \u201cWhat is Tom Jones? He\u2019s \u2018Sex Bomb.\u2019\u201d I didn\u2019t realize that was going to happen. Then again, people say, \u201cWhy do you wear your pants so tight?\u201d and I can\u2019t say\u00a0I didn\u2019t mean it to happen. You\u2019ve got to take the blame, which I do. As long as my talent\u00a0gets through, I can\u2019t ask for much more\u00a0than that.<\/p>\n

\u2013Chris Neal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOM JONES An unrepentant sex bomb showing his spiritual side? It\u2019s not unusual Tom Jones\u2019 record label asked\u00a0if he\u2019d consider recording an album of gospel hymns\u2014something nice and pretty that the company could sell around Christmastime. What he gave them was something very different. Praise & Blame is indeed an album built on spiritual themes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[623,970,2292],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3082"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3102,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082\/revisions\/3102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}