Tom Jones and Elvis

Tom Jones has revealed Elvis Presley inspired him to become a singer. The veteran star - who shot to fame in the 60s with his hit 'It's Not Unusual' - says watching 'The King' as a youngster made him realize what it took to become a star.

Tom, who is adored by legions of female fans, insists Elvis taught him that sex appeal was just as important as talent.

He said: 'It was the first time I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel'. It gave me hope that I could become a famous performer, too. I knew I had the voice and the flair for it. Of course, Elvis and I became great friends'.

The first time I met Elvis was in Los Angeles in 1965. The first year. My first successful year. I'd met all the British groups first, because I did British Television before I went to America, so meeting The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and all these famous bands at the time was great in itself.

Then I go to America and I meet Elvis Presley. And the first meeting was, I went to Paramount studios in Hollywood to talk about a song for a movie, and they said 'Elvis is here today filming and he would like to meet you'. So I though, my God, I didn't know that he knew that I existed, because I had three singles out and one album at the time. And that was 'It's Not Unusual', 'What's New Pussycat' and a ballad called 'With These Hands'.

When I go on the set where Elvis was filming, he got out of his helicopter. It was like a mock helicopter for the film, and he walks towards me and he's singing 'With These Hands', which was my record. I couldn't believe it. It was like a dream, that Elvis Presley was singing my song, you know, to me!
We had a picture taken, and he said to me, 'How the hell do you sing like that?' And I said, 'Well, you are partly to blame, you know, listening to your records in the 50s'.

He said, 'What's it like in Wales then? You come from Wales?' I said 'Yeah'. And he said, 'Do all people sing like that in Wales?' I said, 'Well, not exactly', but I said, 'Welsh people have strong voices, that is where I get my strength from. My volume is where I come from'. But, I said, 'I was influenced more by American music than I was Welsh traditional music'.

So I said, 'It's a combination. I have a Welsh voice, but because of American music influencing me so much, I am sounding like I do'. Because they thought I was black, you know. When they first started playing my records in America, they thought I was black. And so did Elvis Presley. He said, 'When I heard 'What's New Pussycat', I thought it was a black fella singing it'. Which was strange for him to say because they thought he was black when he started.
We became friends from that day on, and that was in 65. We were friends until just before he died. We worked Vegas a lot together, at the same time. He came to see me at The Flamingo in 68, because he said he wanted to make a comeback, live, because he hadn't sung live for years.

He wanted to sing in Las Vegas, so he felt that I was the closest thing to him; I had a similar approach. My stage presence, he felt, was very similar to his. So he said to me, 'You were very successful in Vegas, I want to watch you, I want to see what you do'. And then it gave him more confidence to make a comeback.

He saw me in 68 in The Flamingo, then he opened the International Hotel, no he was the second one in, Barbra Streisand opened it and Elvis was the second one in to the International in 1969, which later became the Hilton.

He said that I gave him confidence to make a comeback, because the group thing was so big, he felt his style might be old fashioned. You know that the single performer, you know, was gone, because The Beatles were so successful.

And he said that because I was so successful, it gave him more confidence to make a comeback, which I was very pleased about, that I had contributed something to Elvis Presley, because he had contributed so much to me, and the world in general, of course, in the 50s. Being influenced by Elvis, I was glad that I could give something back to him.