Kind of interesting - Tom Jones talks about meeting Prince in his autobiography:

</p>

Soon after ‘Kiss’ was a hit, I went to a party at Tramp, the club in Jermyn Street in London, and at the bottom of the stairs I ran into Prince. He was dressed like some kind of eighteenth-century fop – braided coat, teetering heels, huge frilled sleeves, silk handkerchief waving. I may have imagined the handkerchief.</br>

He replied, ‘Thanks for recording it’ – surprising me with his voice, which was by no means falsetto. It turns out the guy has a fathoms-deep speaking voice.

</p>

And then I excused myself and walked on into the party as rapidly as I possibly could – not having anything at all against the thought of hanging out with Prince, but having in my mind a scene which has always haunted me from that Bette Midler movie, The Rose. It’s the bit where Midler, playing Mary Rose Foster, a big rock star, takes a helicopter out to Long Island to see Billy Ray, played by Harry Dean Stanton, a humble country singer and songwriter, one of whose songs Mary Rose Foster has recorded. And Mary Rose Foster is clearly desperate to know what Billy Ray thought of her version of the song and yearning to discover that he liked it because to find out that he didn’t approve of it would be crushing to her. But Billy Ray isn’t saying anything until Mary Rose is on her way out the door, when he finally says: ‘Before you go: don’t you ever record one of my songs again.’ Utter humiliation for Mary Rose.

</p>

And that’s why I moved quickly past Prince at the bottom of the stairs in Tramp that night. It would have devastated me to hear that he didn’t like my version of ‘Kiss’. The best approach in the circumstances seemed to be: right-turn and into the room. Don’t give him the option.

</p>

there's more on the link below - he talks a bit about covering Kiss - I found it interesting, he says that he thinks Kiss is basically an old school blues song (which I agree with) - not always sure how I feel about Tom Jones, but he seems quite humble here...

</p>

http://blog.whsmith.co.uk/read-extract-top-back-tom-jones/

[Edited 11/28/15 12:55pm]

I don't blame him..

cloudguitar said:

Kind of interesting - Tom Jones talks about meeting Prince in his autobiography:

</p>

Soon after ‘Kiss’ was a hit, I went to a party at Tramp, the club in Jermyn Street in London, and at the bottom of the stairs I ran into Prince. He was dressed like some kind of eighteenth-century fop – braided coat, teetering heels, huge frilled sleeves, silk handkerchief waving. I may have imagined the handkerchief.</br>

He replied, ‘Thanks for recording it’ – surprising me with his voice, which was by no means falsetto. It turns out the guy has a fathoms-deep speaking voice.

</p>

And then I excused myself and walked on into the party as rapidly as I possibly could – not having anything at all against the thought of hanging out with Prince, but having in my mind a scene which has always haunted me from that Bette Midler movie, The Rose. It’s the bit where Midler, playing Mary Rose Foster, a big rock star, takes a helicopter out to Long Island to see Billy Ray, played by Harry Dean Stanton, a humble country singer and songwriter, one of whose songs Mary Rose Foster has recorded. And Mary Rose Foster is clearly desperate to know what Billy Ray thought of her version of the song and yearning to discover that he liked it because to find out that he didn’t approve of it would be crushing to her. But Billy Ray isn’t saying anything until Mary Rose is on her way out the door, when he finally says: ‘Before you go: don’t you ever record one of my songs again.’ Utter humiliation for Mary Rose.

</p>

And that’s why I moved quickly past Prince at the bottom of the stairs in Tramp that night. It would have devastated me to hear that he didn’t like my version of ‘Kiss’. The best approach in the circumstances seemed to be: right-turn and into the room. Don’t give him the option.

</p>

there's more on the link below - he talks a bit about covering Kiss - I found it interesting, he says that he thinks Kiss is basically an old school blues song (which I agree with) - not always sure how I feel about Tom Jones, but he seems quite humble here...

</p>

http://blog.whsmith.co.uk/read-extract-top-back-tom-jones/

[Edited 11/28/15 12:55pm]

Tom Jones is awesome Prince thanked him for recording it, so I'd say thats an upvote

NorthC said:

So... Nothing really happened, but Jones still found the story good enough to include it in his autobiography. Now THAT's what makes Prince great.

I was surprised to hear Tom Jones say 'It would have devastated me to hear that he didn’t like my version of ‘Kiss’' - Sir Tom* must a lot of respect for him - which I think he should have, but i'm biased! When you think of all the famous people Tom Jones must have met, but he's still nervous about Prince's opinion.

*I guess he can't be Sir Tom 'cos he's Welsh...OBE though probably

Quite liked the quote: Some things Prince has done, like ‘Purple Rain’, you think, forget it. There’s nothing more you can do with that.

Great - now I have 'It's Not Unusual' stuck in my head!

lezama said:

I don't blame him..

I love this anecdote.

It's fun to be a longtime Prince fan with all this recognition, it will only get better in the years to come.

cloudguitar said:

cloudguitar said:

Kind of interesting - Tom Jones talks about meeting Prince in his autobiography:

</p>

Soon after ‘Kiss’ was a hit, I went to a party at Tramp, the club in Jermyn Street in London, and at the bottom of the stairs I ran into Prince. He was dressed like some kind of eighteenth-century fop – braided coat, teetering heels, huge frilled sleeves, silk handkerchief waving. I may have imagined the handkerchief.</br>

He replied, ‘Thanks for recording it’ – surprising me with his voice, which was by no means falsetto. It turns out the guy has a fathoms-deep speaking voice.

</p>

And then I excused myself and walked on into the party as rapidly as I possibly could – not having anything at all against the thought of hanging out with Prince, but having in my mind a scene which has always haunted me from that Bette Midler movie, The Rose. It’s the bit where Midler, playing Mary Rose Foster, a big rock star, takes a helicopter out to Long Island to see Billy Ray, played by Harry Dean Stanton, a humble country singer and songwriter, one of whose songs Mary Rose Foster has recorded. And Mary Rose Foster is clearly desperate to know what Billy Ray thought of her version of the song and yearning to discover that he liked it because to find out that he didn’t approve of it would be crushing to her. But Billy Ray isn’t saying anything until Mary Rose is on her way out the door, when he finally says: ‘Before you go: don’t you ever record one of my songs again.’ Utter humiliation for Mary Rose.

</p>

And that’s why I moved quickly past Prince at the bottom of the stairs in Tramp that night. It would have devastated me to hear that he didn’t like my version of ‘Kiss’. The best approach in the circumstances seemed to be: right-turn and into the room. Don’t give him the option.

</p>

there's more on the link below - he talks a bit about covering Kiss - I found it interesting, he says that he thinks Kiss is basically an old school blues song (which I agree with) - not always sure how I feel about Tom Jones, but he seems quite humble here...

</p>

http://blog.whsmith.co.uk/read-extract-top-back-tom-jones/

[Edited 11/28/15 12:55pm]

This story is sooo Tom Jones, I can hear him tell it with his own deep voice! He is a great singer ans a very likeable man IMO.

i still wonder if its true Prince was playing NIN "broken" in his car.....

terrig said:

cloudguitar said:

Kind of interesting - Tom Jones talks about meeting Prince in his autobiography:

</p>

Soon after ‘Kiss’ was a hit, I went to a party at Tramp, the club in Jermyn Street in London, and at the bottom of the stairs I ran into Prince. He was dressed like some kind of eighteenth-century fop – braided coat, teetering heels, huge frilled sleeves, silk handkerchief waving. I may have imagined the handkerchief.</br>

He replied, ‘Thanks for recording it’ – surprising me with his voice, which was by no means falsetto. It turns out the guy has a fathoms-deep speaking voice.

</p>

And then I excused myself and walked on into the party as rapidly as I possibly could – not having anything at all against the thought of hanging out with Prince, but having in my mind a scene which has always haunted me from that Bette Midler movie, The Rose. It’s the bit where Midler, playing Mary Rose Foster, a big rock star, takes a helicopter out to Long Island to see Billy Ray, played by Harry Dean Stanton, a humble country singer and songwriter, one of whose songs Mary Rose Foster has recorded. And Mary Rose Foster is clearly desperate to know what Billy Ray thought of her version of the song and yearning to discover that he liked it because to find out that he didn’t approve of it would be crushing to her. But Billy Ray isn’t saying anything until Mary Rose is on her way out the door, when he finally says: ‘Before you go: don’t you ever record one of my songs again.’ Utter humiliation for Mary Rose.

</p>

And that’s why I moved quickly past Prince at the bottom of the stairs in Tramp that night. It would have devastated me to hear that he didn’t like my version of ‘Kiss’. The best approach in the circumstances seemed to be: right-turn and into the room. Don’t give him the option.

</p>

there's more on the link below - he talks a bit about covering Kiss - I found it interesting, he says that he thinks Kiss is basically an old school blues song (which I agree with) - not always sure how I feel about Tom Jones, but he seems quite humble here...

</p>

http://blog.whsmith.co.uk/read-extract-top-back-tom-jones/

[Edited 11/28/15 12:55pm]

Tom Jones is awesome Prince thanked him for recording it, so I'd say thats an upvote

Tom is really awesome, I found some old videos on youtube of him duetting with Aretha, Stevie Wonder, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis on his old TV show. He could really sing that bloke. Wow stuff.

Not that it's important, but let's not forget that Tom Jones and Prince share a birthday--just 18 years apart.

mikeyaddict said:

cloudguitar said:

I was surprised to hear Tom Jones say 'It would have devastated me to hear that he didn’t like my version of ‘Kiss’' - Sir Tom* must a lot of respect for him - which I think he should have, but i'm biased! When you think of all the famous people Tom Jones must have met, but he's still nervous about Prince's opinion.

*I guess he can't be Sir Tom 'cos he's Welsh...OBE though probably

Quite liked the quote: Some things Prince has done, like ‘Purple Rain’, you think, forget it. There’s nothing more you can do with that.

I think taffs can be (sir Alex for example is Scottish). If ur from the republic then u can't be, but from Northern Ireland u can be.

You're right! He actually is a knight!

Not sure i'd follow him into battle though - Ferguson maybe, but not sure I can imagine Tom Jones with a broadsword!