Sir Tom Jones blames himself for his wife’s death.
The ‘Delilah’ hitmaker was left devastated when his beloved spouse Linda died of lung cancer in 2016 and he wishes he’d done something to force her to seek treatment much earlier.
Asked if he blames himself for his wife’s death, he said "Yes. You do start to think, ‘What if I had forced her to go to the doctors?’
"Because she didn’t go. You think, ‘S**t, maybe I should have said she had to’.
"After I lost my wife, lyrics to a Bob Dylan song reminded me of her. It’s called ‘What Good Am I?’
"I was reading into the lyrics thinking , ‘Jesus Christ …was I partly to blame? Should I have woken up before?
"By the time we found out about her cancer it was too late. I thought, ‘What could I have done?’. It started to mean more. So that song is very touching."
But the 78-year-old singer admitted he needed therapy before he was able to perform his cover of the song again.
He added to the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: "When she passed away it was such a blow. I didn’t know whether I’d be able to do that song again.
"It was the one song I was scared of because she loved it.
"I had therapy in LA. The therapist said, ‘Don’t make any drastic moves right now, give it a little time’. I told her about the song and she said, ‘That’s the first one you should try. Get the one you’re scared of over with’.
"I thought as long as I could channel it with balance then I could return to music. I tried it. I got some of my musicians together and that was the first step. And doing that really helped."
Tom – who had son Mark with Linda – recalled his devastation after his wife’s death but admitted he was determined not to "crumble completely".
He said: "When something like that happens, it’s so devastating you don’t know how to deal with everything. It was something I’d never dealt with before.
"I’m human. We’re all human beings first and foremost.
"When you lose someone that you love it can kick you in the…if you really love somebody and they go, that’s hard.
"But you’ve got to try or you’ll crumble completely and other people will suffer. You’ve got to think about your family as well."
Tom Jones wishes he’d done more for wife
