Responding to the criticisms about his view of homosexuals in music industry, the 'Delilah' singer said his words were taken out of context.
- Oct 23, 2015
AceShowbiz - Tom Jones made a lengthy comment about homosexuals in the music industry and then tried to defend his words. The veteran singer landed on hot water when he said he was "paranoid" of the homosexuals when he kicked started his career.
"I was ready for most aspects of the music industry but when I met the producer Joe Meek, that threw me off a bit. Because he was a homosexual," Jones told The Big Issue. "I thought, wait a minute, is the London scene, the people who run British showbusiness - are there a lot of homosexuals involved here? Because if so, I'm going back to Cardiff."
The "She's a Lady" singer did not stop there and recalled the time he hired his managers. He said, "When I signed with Decca, and Peter Sullivan became my manager and he said the same thing Joe Meek said - tell the boys to pack their gear up, I want to talk to you myself - I said, 'You're not one of these queer fellows, are you?' and he said: 'What are you on about?' I became paranoid, you see. I wondered, was that required to make a hit record?"
The 75-year-old continued, "But then I got into it and I realised no, it just so happened that the first guy to record me was a homosexual producer. Once I got over the shock of that, and realized it wasn't true, most people were normal." Realizing he was on thin ice, Jones quickly added, "Well, I shouldn't put it like that. Homosexuals are normal, it's not that they're not normal. It's just that they are what they are."
Andrew White, the director of LGBT rights group Stonewall Cymru blasted the Welsh singer, telling Daily Mail, "It's not unusual to meet gay people in show business so we'd have thought that Sir Tom would have learned how to talk about us by now. Instead he's still painfully tripping over his words. Here in Wales we call him Jones The Voice, it would be a real shame if he became Jones the voice of the past."
Jones attempted to fix the situation, saying his words were taken out of context because he was talking about the "attitudes" back in the days. He tweeted, "Context! The story is about knowledge/attitudes in the 50s & 60s. it's called History!" Jones got gay former rugby player Gareth Thomas on his back. He tweeted, "I can 100|percent| say this article reflects a time gap and having met @RealSirTomJones he is in NO WAY homophobic."
