Tom Jones - the Life

by Sean Smith

  Marji, according to Chris, didn’t take kindly to his suggestion that they should be more discreet. ‘It’s Tom I love, not Linda,’ she declared. And she was not impressed by the idea of taking a taxi to the hotel instead of arriving each night in Tom’s limousine. It seemed hopeless. Eventually, Tom felt he had no choice if he wanted to save his marriage, which he wholeheartedly did. He told Marji that she had to go. A few hours later, she left Vegas for Indiana, but that wasn’t the end of the story.

  A couple of weeks later, at Caesars Palace, everyone was excited about a party to celebrate Tom’s thirty-fourth birthday, when Chris Hutchins took a call from a hospital in Indianapolis. Tom was about to go on stage. Marji was in a coma, having apparently attempted suicide with sleeping pills she had taken from Tom’s bathroom cabinet. He used them only occasionally and hadn’t missed the bottle.

  She was in a coma for two days and in intensive care for a week. Chris decided not to give Tom the news before he performed. ‘When he came off, I told him and he was very upset. It looked at one point as if she might die.’

  Marjorie Wallace may have become internationally famous during her brief reign as Miss World, but she was still just a twenty-year-old suburban girl, the daughter of an Indiana businessman, who had lost her fiancé and now her lover. It was too much for her.

  The mood back at Caesars Palace was grim, lightened that night by, of all people, the camp and outrageous entertainer Liberace, who had been invited to join Tom’s party in the VIP bar. He invented a game for them all to play that night, in which everyone had to be blindfolded and try to identify a series of soft drinks placed in front of them. Much laughter was had as they failed to spot the difference between ginger ale and lemonade. It took all the tension out of a situation that could have been so much worse. Chris even scribbled a statement for Tom to give should the unthinkable happen and Marji not pull through.

  Tom has always said, without prompting, that he has only ever loved Linda, but his feelings for Marji were the closest he came to loving someone else. It was the most serious affair he has had.

  Chris Hutchins observes, ‘It had to end, because it wasn’t good for either of them. It was very sad, because they were genuinely fond of each other.

  ‘He would never, ever, ever have left Linda, no matter how much trouble he got into. Linda is the great love of his life, but he did have genuine affection for certain women – because he is a genuine man.’

  Later in the year, when Marji had fully recovered, she reportedly met up with Tom in Acapulco, Los Angeles and Bermuda. Subsequently, when her love affair with Tom was truly over, she had a high-profile relationship with tennis champion Jimmy Connors and was seen supporting him at Wimbledon in 1976. The same year, she told People magazine that she had not attempted suicide. She explained, ‘I was depressed and OD’d on a few too many sleeping pills.’ From time to time she has appeared in acting and presenting roles on television, but has kept a low profile for the last thirty years.

  She has kept in touch with Tom, however. She was contacted by the Sunday Mirror in 2012, when Tom was appointed a judge on The Voice, and she was very gracious about him: ‘We stayed friends and we are often in touch. I wouldn’t want to rehash our relationship as it was so long ago and I have no interest in doing that.

  ‘But it is great to speak to him on the telephone once in a while. I always follow his career and I am really pleased he is going to be coaching up-and-coming singers. He has such a beautiful voice.’

  Tom is on very good terms with the women who have been important in his life. Linda, however, did not take the Marji Wallace affair lying down. Whenever she spotted Marji on television, she threw something at the screen.

  Dai Perry was finally involved in an incident that was too serious for Tom to ignore. In May 1974, Tom’s South American tour had reached Caracas and the airport was heaving with journalists, photographers and fans trying to get a piece of Tom. Dai didn’t know if he was coming or going, and when someone ripped off his crucifix, he turned round and lashed out. His signet ring caught a reporter’s eyebrow, causing a nasty gash. The ring was a big, heavy piece of bling with a Welsh dragon etched into it. Both he and Tom wore identical ones.

  The reporter promptly filed a $65,000 lawsuit and secured a court order against Tom, who was instructed to appear before a judge three days later. Gordon wasn’t there, but Lloyd Greenfield was on the phone immediately, asking him what to do. The instruction was brief and to the point: Dai Perry needed to be shipped out on the next plane. He was flown to Miami and from there straight to London.

  Tom and the rest of the party set off for the airport as planned, only to be told that they weren’t allowed to leave. They were sent back to the Hilton Hotel, where armed guards made sure they stayed put. It was a hostile situation. Chris Hutchins then had the bright idea of sending a cable to Prime Minister Harold Wilson for help. It worked, because the next thing they knew, Lloyd received a call saying that Tom needed to present himself at the judge’s office at 6.00 the following morning and bring $9,000 with him in cash. Only Tom went into the chambers.

  He later told his entourage all about it. The first thing the judge did was lay a gun on the table. Then he told Tom that neither he nor his people could behave like this in his country. He told him that there was a plane leaving in two hours for Miami. The judge said, ‘Be on it or you are going to be arrested.’ They had police outriders, with blue lights flashing the whole way, to make sure they made the flight. When they arrived in Florida, the newspaper placards were already out, proclaiming ‘HAROLD WILSON GETS TOM JONES OUT OF JAIL’, which was a perfect result for Chris. He observes, ‘It wasn’t Harold, or Tom. It was $9,000.’

  All did not end well, however, because Tom had to agree to let Dai go. Chris recalls, ‘He was so upset when Dai had to go home. So upset.’

  15

  The King and I

  Tom couldn’t believe it when he was told Elvis and his wife Priscilla had been seen in the foyer of the Flamingo. He thought it was a wind-up and said, ‘Fuck off!’ But it was true – The King and his entourage, the ‘Memphis Mafia’, had driven from Los Angeles just to see the show. They had been invited by Chris Hutchins, who knew both Colonel Tom Parker and Joe Esposito, Elvis’s road manager, and suggested they come over.

  Elvis was curious to see how a performer like Tom would be received in Las Vegas, because he was seriously thinking of making a live comeback there himself. His recording career was in the middle of a slump and he needed something to reinvigorate his career – a problem Tom would also face at a later date.

  The lighting in the audience was quite dark, so Tom had to peer into the gloom to see if Elvis was really there. He had been primed by Chris, so he knew what to say if he caught sight of the man. Eventually, he realised The King was in the very front row. Halfway through the show, he introduced Elvis, who stood up to take a bow, and the place erupted. It went on for ages and ages, until Tom managed to calm everyone down. Elvis eventually sat back down and Tom said, ‘Don’t forget I’m the star here tonight.’ It was a tongue-in-cheek comment, but took some nerve: Tom was just starting his Vegas adventure, whereas Elvis was the biggest star in the world.

  After the concert, Elvis and his gang went backstage to congratulate Tom in his dressing room. The ‘Mafia’ usually numbered about half a dozen or so of Elvis’s oldest friends and yes-men. If Elvis told them at breakfast that scarlet was the new colour, they would all have their cars resprayed by lunch.

  Linda was at the Flamingo that evening and she sat and chatted with Priscilla. Tom remembers Elvis saying he wanted to watch him in concert to see how he put together his act. Tom and Elvis talked about music, something they both never tired of doing.

  Priscilla Presley believes that Elvis took to Tom because he was a real person – ‘someone who was down to earth that you could talk to, that was not on an ego trip’. Tom’s show also reminded Elvis how it used to be for him: the adulation of the girls, the applause and the fanta
stic music. He missed it. He also liked the way Tom didn’t take it too seriously. For his part, Tom thought the Presleys were ‘a great couple’. He gave Priscilla an autographed photograph for their daughter Lisa-Marie, who was six months old.

  The first meeting went so well that Elvis invited Tom to stay at his holiday villa in Hawaii. When he arrived, Priscilla told him that her husband had popped out to buy a couple of guitars so the two of them would have something to goof around with later. After dinner, the two men enjoyed a sing-song, like a couple of enthusiastic schoolboys, belting out ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock’, as well as ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and Elvis’s favourite, ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’. They jammed together through the night. Tom said simply, ‘I’ll never forget it as long as I live.’

  The two men became genuine friends. Elvis called Tom ‘Sockdick’, although not often to his face. He thought his pal’s impressive bulge must be due to the old trick of sticking some knitwear down the front of his tight trousers. Tom spoke graciously of Elvis to the Daily Express: ‘I never sat at his feet looking up to him, because we regarded each other as equals. He was much too modest to be comfortable with someone who fawned around him and was never afraid to admit his own vulnerability – always the mark of the truly great.’

  They were rivals, as well as friends, when Elvis began a season at the newly opened International Hotel in July 1969, which two years later was renamed the Las Vegas Hilton. Both shows were ruthlessly advertised. On one side of the strip the huge billboards read, ‘Elvis Presley is at the International’. On the other side, the hoardings declared, ‘Tom Jones is in Town!’

  Tom moved briefly to the International too, because its showroom was three times the size of the Flamingo’s. In 1971, he finally settled at Caesars Palace. Elvis, meanwhile, stayed loyal to the Hilton, where he lived in the impressive penthouse, which became known as ‘Party Central’. The two friends would take it in turns to visit each other’s suites.

  Elvis was a reality check for Tom – a stark example of a road he would go down if he didn’t look after himself. Tom tried to keep in shape. At home in the UK, it was relatively easy, thanks to his fitness complex. On the road or in Vegas, it was more difficult, but he swam and took up squash. In the eighteen months before he opened at the Flamingo, he slimmed down from fifteen to eleven and a half stone. He said goodbye to chips for ever. He never stuffed himself with burgers or other junk food and avoided puddings, preferring a chateaubriand steak for dinner with the finest wines.

  Tom didn’t drink before a concert, which was particularly important where the desert air was so dry and put a strain on his voice. His shows were a workout in themselves, because Tom finished dripping with sweat and as much as six pounds lighter. After a show, he took a long, thirty-minute shower and then enjoyed a vodka martini or opened a bottle or two of Dom Pérignon while he socialised. His friend and backing singer Darlene Love became so sick of the constant supply of vintage champagne that she loathes bubbly to this day and only has a glass if it is mixed with orange juice.

  Elvis, however, struggled with his weight yo-yoing up and down. Early on, he told Tom that he took pills to stop the pounds piling on. The two men would have many discussions about the merits of drink and drugs.

  During one conversation, Elvis told him that he had taken every kind of drug imaginable just to keep his ‘head together’. Elvis asked him what he took to keep sane and Tom replied simply, ‘Nothing, that’s why I feel I am sane.’ Tom’s aversion to drugs is very well known. He told Sylvie Simmons of MOJO magazine a funny story of the evening he went to a party in London thrown by Lulu. A rock star sidled up to him and said, ‘You want to see what’s going on in the kitchen!’ Tom, being Tom, immediately thought it might be something involving one or hopefully two women. He was disappointed to see that the great excitement was a pile of white powder on the kitchen table. ‘See you later,’ he said.

  Elvis never took any drugs in front of Tom – he had too much respect for him. Instead, they would be sitting down, listening to records, when Elvis would suddenly disappear into the bedroom and come out a new man. They would listen to a few more records and then the same thing would happen again.

  They may have had differing opinions on drugs, but both Elvis and Tom had similar views on gambling. Although they were the bait to draw thousands of punters into the hotel casinos, they never indulged themselves. That example was not followed by their respective managers, who lost fortunes at the gaming tables. Gordon incurred heavy losses playing blackjack. He was rumoured, in one disastrous night, to have lost the whole of Engelbert’s fee for a year.

  Tom just didn’t get the attraction. Why give away so easily what you had worked so hard to earn? One evening at Caesars Palace, Linda came bounding up to him and asked for some money so she and a friend could spend some time at the tables. Tom reached in his pocket and gave her $5. He advised her, ‘Don’t lose it all at once.’

  Tom was intrinsically more sociable than Elvis, who preferred quiet evenings in his suite. He loved gospel music and was prepared to stay up even later than Tom, just singing. Tom would say goodnight and be halfway out the door, when Elvis would start something else and Tom would be obliged to go back in and sing another song.

  For the most part, they kept their friendship low-key. Elvis would slip into Caesars Palace with a baseball cap over his distinctive black hair and sit at the back of the room. Disappointingly, Elvis and Tom never sang together in public. Elvis might walk on stage when Tom was performing, but he was under strict contract to another hotel, so he would never join in with a quick chorus of ‘Delilah’. Their duets were private moments and Elvis made it clear that they must never be recorded. His manager, Colonel Parker, had told him that he must ensure there were no bootleg recordings, an instruction he followed religiously. Tom was the same where Gordon was concerned: he never forgot what Gordon said.

  When they weren’t singing, they would talk about music. Elvis once suggested they could do a concert together, with The Beatles as their backing group. They could do their own songs, followed by a few duets and the Fab Four could play all the instruments. Elvis asked, ‘Do you think there is a chance we could get them to do it?’ Tom, who still laughs about that conversation, responded: ‘It would be fantastic.’

  The pair were such good friends, they exchanged rings. Elvis gave Tom a splendid black sapphire ring, which annoyingly disappeared from his hotel bathroom one night on tour – along with the young lady who was using it. Tom, in turn, presented Elvis with a tiger’s eye ring that he knew he liked.

  Elvis, for whom death threats were a way of life, was obsessed with firearms and would make sure he was armed even when he used the toilet. He gave Tom a gun with ‘Tom Jones’ engraved on the barrel. Tom has never had to fire his gun, although he made sure he knew how to use it. Perversely, Elvis also gave him a book that he’d enjoyed, entitled The Impersonal Life, a famous text about self-discovery and leading a spiritual life.

  These gestures of friendship continued when Elvis came to the rescue after Tom’s famous backing group, The Blossoms, walked out during a Las Vegas concert. Tom had made a stupid joke about the Ku Klux Klan. He was mopping his brow with a handkerchief, which he then made into a mask, Klan style, turned to the girls and said, ‘Be out of town by midnight.’ The three black singers didn’t find it funny and walked straight off stage, leaving Tom wishing the ground would open up and swallow him. Some things you just don’t joke about.

  He contacted Elvis and asked him if he could help. Elvis immediately put his own backing group, Sweet Inspirations, on a plane to Vegas to cover for the girls. In the end, Tom apologised and The Blossoms agreed to resume their role.

  The most famous of The Blossoms was Darlene Love, who had been one of Phil Spector’s troupe of artists and appeared on his acclaimed Christmas album. She was a gifted singer and probably should have been a solo artist, but the girls made $2,000 a week opening for Tom and then backing him
throughout his concerts. Darlene had a soft spot for her employer, but was another singer who managed to avoid an affair with him.

  She hopped into bed with him one night in Las Vegas, but skipped out again quickly before her underwear came off. In her book My Name Is Love she amusingly suggests she was on ‘a fact-finding mission’ to see what all the fuss was about. She made her apologies when she realised that lying next to a ‘hairy white man’ was a mistake. She wrote, ‘Tom was very nice. He didn’t try to force me to stay.’

  Darlene also gives some insight into the decadent world surrounding Tom Jones. She and one of her bandmates glimpsed what went on at one of Tom’s parties while they were on tour in Long Island. She wrote, ‘We felt as if we had stumbled into a porno film. Naked men were chasing naked women everywhere.’ The action got so steamy on top of a glass-topped table that the whole thing shattered. She observed, ‘It was a miracle that, beyond a few nicks and cuts, nobody really got hurt.’

  In the small world of Vegas, Tom had signed The Blossoms from under the nose of Elvis, who also sang with them and was keen to make the arrangement permanent. There were no hard feelings.

  Elvis was always gracious about Tom. In August 1974, Tom had flown in to Las Vegas to prepare for a new season at Caesars Palace, and went along to see his friend perform at the Hilton. Elvis paused between songs and announced, ‘There’s somebody I’d like you to meet. To me … he’s my favourite singer. He’s one of the greatest performers I’ve ever seen, and the greatest voice, Tom Jones. There he is. He’s too much. Tom, you open at Caesars Palace tomorrow night, right? Folks, if you get the chance, go over and see him. He’s really something.’

  The King had split with Priscilla in 1972, when she left him after she had an affair with her karate instructor. As a result, Elvis spent much more time in Las Vegas, and, with hindsight, it is easy to think their split was the beginning of his fateful downward spiral. He had known Priscilla since she was fourteen and he was a GI stationed in Germany, so she had been the most important part of his life for fourteen years. By the time Elvis was divorced in 1973, Tom had been married for sixteen years. He never had to face being a superstar without knowing that his wife was at home waiting for him.