‘Less control you have over vocal chords’: Tom Jones speaks about singing career

Tom Jones may be 84 but he doesn’t have plans to retire anytime soon.

Jones started singing at nightclubs when he was a teen, dropping out of school at 15 and working manual labor while singing at night, according to his biography.

And while he has been on stage for more than 50 years, he still performs, even though his voice has changed as he has gotten older.

The “It’s Not Unusual” singer told Yours magazine, “I can still sing. All you have got to do is push it harder ... and I can still do that,” Metro reported.

“My voice is lower now. As we get older, our voices drop, and we get more character in them. The older you get, the less control you have over your vocal cords.

“Being older, I feel I’ve got a point to prove. I can still sing and I can prove it, so here it is.”

Not only has his age affected his voice, it also has affected how much he is able to move around the stage. Still, when he gives his fans a show, he doesn’t worry about it because “I can’t walk around like I used to.” Instead, “I concentrate more on singing than I do anything else,” he told Metro last year.

Jones told Metro in 2023 that he would only retire if he lost his voice.

He did have to take a break in 2017 when he had a hip replacement. Five years later, he had a second. Those surgeries, however, allow him to “get up there and do it live,” Wales Online reported.

Jones hasn’t stopped singing and has toured the world as part of his “Ages and Stages World Tour” with stops in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the United Arab Emirates. He has several shows in the U.K. before he goes to Spain, Malta, Greece and the Netherlands this summer. He’ll be in Illinois in September.

The “What’s New Pussycat” singer also uses his experience coaching the next generation of singers on the British version of “The Voice,” Metro reported.

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Through the years Tom Jones, singer from Wales. Also Sir Tom Jones. Born Thomas John Woodward on 7th June 1940 in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, South Wales. At this time in Tom's career, he had just released his first solo single, 'Chills and Fever' in August 1964. But in 1965, Tom became a household name with his major hit 'It's Not Unusual'. Other hits followed in the the 1960s such as What's New Pussycat, The Green Green Grass of Home, and Delilah. Picture taken 24th September 1964. (Photo by Carl Bruin/Mirrorpix/Getty Images) (Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

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