Tom Jones Is Swinging Strong Tom Jones Has Matured From A Teen Idol To A Respected Musician

Here are a few things you might want to know about Tom Jones, the 54-year-old Welsh coal miner’s son, longtime popular singer and sex symbol:

Women - grandmothers, mothers and daughters - still toss their underwear at him when he’s on stage. But, whereas in the past, Jones would make a fuss of it, now he lets sleeping undies lie. “I used to do a lot of shtick with it,” Jones says. “I don’t touch them anymore.”

The older women, he says, hurl their knickers with some seriousness; the younger ones with their tongues-in-cheek, with “a giggle.”

Jones is one well-respected man. Those who don’t know his work sometimes dismiss him in Englebert-ian terms, or see his hip cachet as kitsch. Wrong. Those who have sung duets with Jones include Stevie Wonder, EMF, Daryl Hall, Sam Moore, Joe Cocker, the Chieftains and Shakespear’s Sister.

He’s comfortable in virtually any genre: soul, pop, R&B, country, rock, even hip-hop. He’ll sing U2 or Hank Williams. He has been feted on “The Simpsons.” He is all over MTV and VH1. His latest album, “The Lead and How To Swing It,” his first U.S. album in six years, is co-produced by some of the top names in the biz: Trevor Horn, Flood, Teddy Riley, Youth and Jeff Lynne.

The screaming man on the album cover - the trim, taut guy in a mesh vest and tight slacks, the man next to the scantily clad female model wielding a jackhammer - is Tom Jones. Tom Jones today. He swears it. He worked out and shed pounds.

“I pumped up for that picture,” he says. “I did some crunches and some pushups to get the stomach muscles poppin’.”

Jones had hits back in the mid-‘60s with “It’s Not Unusual,” “Delilah” and “What’s New, Pussycat?” and up through the ‘80s and ‘90s with “Kiss,” “Unbelievable” and “If I Only Knew.”

Jones, like Tony Bennett, is going through something of a late-in-life career renaissance, as he’s being pitched to a younger audience. The difference, as Jones sees it, is that Bennett - although performing duets with some of today’s pop stars - hasn’t really changed his style. He’s still, essentially, the same pop-jazz crooner.

“With me, it’s wider spread than that,” says Jones, who has adapted to today’s musical currency. “It’s more rock - if I go into a rock club, I’m doing most of the new album on stage. It’s aimed at a younger audience; it’s not just doing what I did in the ‘60s, which is what Tony Bennett is doing.”

Hence, the hip-hop (and rap!) on Rise Robots Rise’s “If I Only Knew,” the edgy guitar lines on Wolfgang Press’ “A Girl Like You” and other, modern-styled productions. “The Lead …, ” on Interscope, the label co-founded by ace producer Jimmy Iovine and home to Nine Inch Nails, is a soulful rock/R&B record with an emphasis on the uptempo. Some progressive rockers, some traditional ballads.

“I wanted to make a contemporary album,” says Jones. “I talked to a lot of other record companies and they wanted to play it safe; they wanted to do more ballads than anything else and I wanted to do more (like) ‘Kiss,’ like I did with the Art of Noise. I wanted to get some edgy stuff on there.”

With a pumped-up album Jones has embarked upon a two-week North American tour, not playing his usual haunts, the outdoor suburban tents, but intimate rock and dance clubs. Jones brings his eight-piece band (plus three female backup vocalists) to town for a show, he says, that could run two hours. Why this? Why now?

“I’ve noticed that it’s easier to go where younger people go,” Jones says, “rather than try to get them to come see me in a place they wouldn’t ordinarily go.”

Jones doesn’t exactly tell his older fans to stay home this time, but he makes it clear that this is a stand-up-and-dance affair. Have the kids been known to mosh?

“They do everything kids do at a rock concert,” says Jones. “Sure, they slam-dance.”

Why is Jones eagerly doing roadwork at a time when most folks would be happy to sit on their cash pile and play golf? “My voice is still as strong as it ever was,” he says. “A lot of people, when they grow older, they start to change their repertoire because they can’t do those songs anymore. I hope I never get to the point of not being able to sing ‘Delilah.’ There’s only one way to sing ‘Delilah’ - it’s a full-blown song, high, and it’s big-rangy. Once I can’t cut that one anymore, I think that’s it. I’ll stop. My voice will tell me that. …

“That’s why I go on tour so much. I know it’s not gonna last forever. I don’t want to be, in 10 years time, thinking, ‘Oh, why didn’t I do more then? Why did I take six months off?’ When I get to that stage, I don’t want to have any regrets.”

MEMO: This sidebar ran with story: AWARDS SHOW Tom Jones, country singer Lorrie Morgan and rapper Queen Latifah emcee the 22nd annual American Music Awards awards tonight at 8 on KXLY-Channel 4.