Sir Tom Jones is not "frightened" of ageing.
The 80-year-old singer has recorded a cover of Bobby Cole's 'I'm Growing Old' for his upcoming album 'Surrounded By Time', and has admitted he always wanted to perform the track but felt he was too young - that was until he turned 80 in June last year.
He told The Sun newspaper: “I was 32 when Bobby gave it to me. It was 1972 and he was in Vegas the same time I was. He came into the dressing room and said, ‘I’ve got this song — what do you think?’ I loved it but I didn’t think I was old enough to do it. So I said if I got to 80, then I’d do it.
"That was the first one I played to [producer] Ethan [Johns]. He asked, ‘What did I want to admit to? That I’m growing old?’ And I said yes because it’s all true. I’m aware of feeling older and I wanted to address it. I’m not frightened of it.”
Jones felt that he could relate to the lyrics "I’m growing slower in my walk" after his son noticed he looks down when he walks.
He explained: “I look down at the floor when I walk. My son says he’s noticed how when I’m walking I’m looking down a lot.
“I say that it’s because I don’t want to trip over. If I hit the floor, it’s harder for me to get up now than when I was young.”
The upcoming album marks the first since his wife Linda died from lung cancer in 2016 and his track 'What Good Am I?' has a special meaning surrounding her death.
Jones said: "The final line of the song is, ‘What good am I if I say foolish things/And I laugh in the face of what sorrow brings/And I just turn my back while you silently die’.
“So since Linda died, I’ve been thinking, ‘I hope I didn’t stand by and let this happen to her’. What if I could have done something? But my doctor said there’s nothing I could have done."
