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12 MusicWeek 18.05.12 THEBIGINTERVIEWTOMJONES ONE TRUE VOICE


As a judge on The Voice, Tom Jones’ celebrity status probably hasn’t been this high since the Sixties. Perhaps more significantly, with 2010’s Praise & Blame and next week’s Spirit In The Room, his critical stock and commercial clout is also very much on the up


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TALENT  BY DAVE ROBERTS


H


ow many viewers of the BBC’s hit new talent show know that they’re only really watching The Voice when Tom Jones is on screen?


His home country’s unsubtle approach to the art of nomenclature


(surname + main aspect of job) saw him become first Jones The Voice and then simply, but bloody accurately, The Voice. “They still call me that in Wales”, confirms the man himself. Full


circle then, after nearly 50 years of fame and 100 million record sales. And there’s an even more obvious return to roots signaled by Jones’


last two albums: 2010’s Praise & Blame and Spirit In The Room, released by Island next week (May 21). Both are built around the gospel and blues songs that played a big


part in Jones’ childhood in south Wales: in chapel, on stage, listening to the radio and dreaming of being somewhere very different. He ended up going further than anyone could have imagined, but


is obviously thrilled at coming, musically at least, ‘home’. Critics and consumers seem equally pleased. Praise & Blame was


widely hailed as a career high – the only slightly negative note being that he hadn’t started down this track earlier. It went to No.2 in the charts, held off the top spot by Eminem,


another working-class white boy making a comeback in a black genre that he had conquered without compromise. Like Praise & Blame, Spirit is produced by Ethan Johns (inset), a


man Jones clearly loved working with and whom he is quick to credit. There are obvious comparisons with Johnny Cash’s American Recordings: a young producer (Rick Rubin in Cash’s case) encouraging a veteran performer to bring decades of experience, knowledge, passion and loss to an eclectic line-up of songs old and new. Jones brought all that to Praise & Blame, and next week brings it all back for Spirit In The Room: all that plus, of course, The Voice.


“With Praise & Blame, the critics were saying, ‘Finally, we can hear Tom Jones’ voice’ - and I thought, really? Fuck me, I thought you could always hear my voice, of all people’s. But they were hearing it in a new way - stripped down.” TOM JONES


What motivated Praise & Blame and who drove the project? Island Records asked would I do an album of a religious nature, something for Christmas. I talked to my son [Mark, who has managed his father for over 25 years] about it and he said, ‘Maybe this will give us a chance to do some gospel stuff that you’ve always wanted to do and never done’. I said yeah, if they’ll go for it. Then Ethan Johns


came on board and said he would love to do it. So we went ahead. We picked songs that meant something. It didn’t always have to be about Jesus, or overtly religious, but they had to mean something, they needed to be soulful; like the Bob Dylan song we did, What Good Am I? You’re questioning yourself, looking at your life and questioning your worth.


Had you always listened to gospel? Oh definitely. For me, gospel and blues music was hugely influential when I was a kid. They didn’t play much, but when I heard them they had a big impact. Like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who not only sung gospel but played electric guitar, that was pretty revolutionary. That stuff was always there for me and in me.


Is it true to say that with that album, maybe for the first time in a while, you were singing songs you wanted to sing?


Yes, very much. With Praise & Blame, it was the first time I guess where I’ve been allowed to not think commercially at all. Ethan Johns helped with that because he’s so well respected and Island like him, so his backing was essential. They knew in his hands we’d have something. What we did was walk into a studio with a few


musicians, listen to some songs and say yeah, I like that, let’s have a go at that. We started listening before we got down there, but a lot of stuff we listened to down there, like Run On. Now I knew that because I used to listen to


Elvis sing it in his hotel suite in Vegas, when he used to get his singers up there. Elvis loved gospel music, that was his favourite music. And for Praise & Blame, they played me all sorts of versions, but they all came from the same place Elvis came from and I said I’m not doing anything here that he hasn’t already done; we need to do something, we need to kick it up. So I suggested we lift the key, and add on


something to drive it. Ethan suggested trying some guitar riffs. And all of a sudden, it was there.


It sounds like you enjoyed the organic nature of the project, working with a band and chipping in with ideas rather than arriving in a studio where a producer says ‘We’re ready for you now Mr Jones’…


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