From the S&S archives: Tom Jones: He Prefers Success

TOKYO — In the Tokyo area, 120,000 yen ($450) will buy either 60 record albums or 240 single releases or one Tom Jones concert seat in an exclusive nightclub, which reported a sell-out. When this 32-year-old popular singer heard about the price, he almost cancelled his tour of Japan.

"Well, the only thing I can say is that the promoter doesn't tell me what songs to sing and I don't tell him what prices to charge," Jones said during a press conference Saturday at the New Latin Quarter, which is offering Jones at the expensive price as a "15th anniversary present."

"I don't make the decisions on what prices to charge, but when we found out that they were so expensive, I wanted to cancel the tour.

"But we had already signed the contracts and everything, so the only thing we could think of was that we would give some of the money from our side to charity and the promoter would do the same. That's the only way we could sort it out."

There is a way for the middle classers — the people who make up a large percentage of Jones' record sales — to see A-TOMic Jones, the name that one of his record albums implies. A concert hall here, the Budokan, is offering seats as low as 3,000 yen ($11.85).

Jones said that this situation has not happened in any other country and he didn't know how much over his asking price, the ticket prices were. "I don't think about the prices because I don't set them," he said,

The man who does set the prices for Jones didn't travel to Japan with the Jones troupe.

He didn't know which charities would benefit from the contribution, but he did ask that it would be a Japanese children's organization dealing with "orphans and children's hospitals."

When one reporter noted that giving to charity was good, but it did not change the price of the ticket, Jones said, "We don't state how much the tickets should be. We just put in a price and if the promoter can meet that, then it's up to him what prices he charges. But we were not aware that they were as high as they are.

"But it's too late to change it now."

A member of the Japanese press offered a suggestion to Jones that, he said, could help ease the price shock. He said if Jones would try to kiss every girl in the club, most people would think that the pre was worth it.

Jones is aware that he is considered a sex symbol and, as he says, "I love it!"

Jones seemed to understand that the ordinary person couldn't afford the nightclub's prices, probably because he, at one time, was an ordinary person, believe it or not.

"I came from a working class family in a little town in South Wales. My father was a coal miner and I had a very good upbringing. I think that's one of the most important things in life. The way you're brought up as a child reflects on your adult life."

For this reason, he's happy. "It's a great feeling to come from a working family and to make a success out of something that I enjoy doing," he said.

Jones wasn't always the tuxedo wearing clean-cut singer he is today. When he recorded his first hit single, "What's New Pussycat," he sported long hair and blue jeans. He changed that image — why?

"Because that was the style at the time and I changed because I grew older and styles have changed. I've just progressed in that way, but it's nothing that we tried to do," meaning the change was not purposely done for popularity reasons. "It just happened that way."

Someone in the position that Jones is in must worry about danger. When Fabian was big, he had a bodyguard to protect him. So does Jones and he has come in handy, like the night at Madison Square Garden in New York when Jones was performing in a theater-in-the-round, where the stage is in the middle of the auditorium.

"The people are seated all around you," Jones said.

"At the end of the concert, the whole audience came down from the seats (onto the stage) and the stage began to crumble.

"I jumped from the stage to some steps and the steps gave away.

"They (the audience) ripped most of my pants off and my shirt and medallion came away.

"We had 150 policemen and they just couldn't hold the crowd, so my bodyguard and myself had to fight our way through."

Then there's his personal life With his wife and child. Jones doesn't mind not being able to do the things that most people can do, because, he says, he has done them already.

"I'm doing something now that I've always wanted to do and that sort of knocks everything else out of the way.

"Before I became successful, I did all those things. I drank with the lads in the pubs back home and I looked in the shop windows. I just looked, I couldn't buy. I rode on busses and things like that.

"I've done that and I prefer what I'm doing now."

One thing he hasn't done yet and would like to is to make a movie. The opportunity came last year, but Jones passed it up. The film, The Gospel Singer, was too strong, he said.

"We read the script of The Gospel Singer and it wasn't suitable. We then read a second script and that wasn't suitable.

"The film is too strong. There was a lot of race problems in there about blacks and whites and there were strong religious overtones.

"We felt it would be too controversial for me to do, so we scrapped it.

"I would like to make a film just to see if I can act. If the first one wasn't any good, I think that would stop me from making any more.

"I do right now what I've always wanted to do and I would just like to continue in this way."

Jones has a wife, and when asked if she is the only woman in his life, he replied with, "Oh yes!

"The first thing I can remember (about his wife), is I liked the way she looked. We went to the same school together. We grew up together and fell in love."

It's almost impossible to believe that Jones had never had any professional education in the field of music, but it's true.

"In South Wales, most people sing at a get-together in the evenings," he said.

"I was brought up in that atmosphere. Nobody in my family, except me, have been professionals, but I think the atmosphere meant a lot.

"I'm basically a Welsh tenor. I like to sing rhythm and blues.

I was brought up on ballad singing. I like to sing anything from rock and roll to a straight ballad."

The next question, "Tell us, Mr. Jones, what do you think of Elvis Presley?"

"I think he's a nice fellow," was the answer. "We've met quite a few times, had a few drinks together, talked about music and the way he and I started. We're very good friends."

Jones finished a recording session for a new album before leaving England, but it hasn't been decided yet what the singles will be.

The press conference ended after Jones was asked what his philosophy in life was. Re thought for a few seconds and said, "It's hard to say what any philosophy on life is.

"I think if you don't do anybody any harm, live as close to the rules as you can, and as long as you're in good health, you haven't got much to worry about.

"If you achieve as much as you would like to achieve, that means a great deal. If most people could achieve what they really wanted, then there wouldn't be as much bitterness.

"I think most people are frustrated because they can't really do what they want to."

Jones said, "You can't knock success." That, he has plenty of.