Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Tom Jones says he was 'paranoid' after meeting his first homosexual and nearly moved back to Cardiff

The crooner also gets tongue-tied trying to figure out if homosexuals are normal or not

Chris Mandle
Thursday 22 October 2015 11:29 BST
Comments
(Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Tom Jones has talked about his early days in the music industry and described being “thrown off” after meeting his first homosexual when he moved to London.

The singer said in an interview with The Big Issue that he used to harbour prejudices against gay men, including his first producer, Joe Meek, and he considered going back to Cardiff after meeting a gay person for the first time.

“I was ready for most aspects of the music industry but, when I met [Meek], that threw me off a bit, because he was homosexual,” Jones said.

“I thought: ‘Wait a minute, is the London scene - the people who run British showbusiness - are there a lot of homosexuals involved here? Because, if so, I’m going back to Cardiff.”

He says he became “paranoid” about gay people and assumed most people in the industry were homosexual, describing an encounter with his manager Peter Sullivan.

“I said: ‘You’re not one of those queer fellows, are you?’ And he said : ‘What are you on about?’ I became paranoid, you see.”

Luckily for poor Tom Jones, he quickly learned that there were plenty of heterosexuals for him to bond with in the big city, and his early concerns that being gay was imperative to him making a good album were rubbished when he realised “most people were normal”.

“I shouldn’t put it like that,” he backtracks, “Homosexuals are normal, it’s not that they’re not normal. It’s just that they are what they are.” His comments come shortly after he gave an interview in which he said he was surprised that his friend Jimmy Savile was a paedophile because he didn’t seem creepy enough.

It's not the first tangled-up interview Jones has given lately. Earlier this month he said he knew Savile enjoyed the company of teenage girls, but didn’t think much of it at the time, pointing out that girls had to be at least 16 years old to dance in the crowd.

“To me, Jimmy Savile was a good man. But who knows?” he pondered.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in