Sir Tom Jones’ heyday was in the 1960s at a time when rock and roll music – and bad behaviour – arrived with a bang. The Welsh Sex Bomb singer, 78, made his name in Welsh working men’s clubs before “It’s Not Unusual” brought him to worldwide attention. Married man Tom spent the following decades enjoying a womanising lifestyle as he toured the world. The lothario later claimed to have slept with up to 250 women in one year in his prime.
But what is Tom Jones’ stance on drugs?
Surprisingly, Tom hugely disapproves of drug-taking and claims to have never taken a single illegal drug in his life.
In a 2015 interview with The Sunday Times’s Bryan Appleyard, Tom said: “I’ve never touched drugs. I’ve never even smoked a joint.”
The star revealed he attended an A-list party in the 1970s where a pile of cocaine was mounted “reaching towards the ceiling” with “straws sticking out of it”.
The Voice judge could not understand this as cocaine was something you reportedly got from the dentist in Wales.
He said: “I was doing my TV show in about 1970 and Smokey Robinson asked me if we had any of this white powder. I said, ‘What do you think I am, a f****** dentist?’”
Tom went on to say the idea of taking it recreationally seemed “alien”.
He said: “It was a macho thing, it was part of my upbringing to go into a pub and enjoy a pint of beer.
“You cannot go up to a coalman and tell him to smoke a joint or have some cocaine instead when the man is dying of thirst. He’ll f****** knock you out.”
The same cannot be said for Tom’s estranged son Jonathan Berkery, 30, who has dabbled with drug-taking since his youth.
Jonathan, who goes by the name Jon Jones, was conceived as the result of an extra-marital fling between Tom and model Katherine Berkery.
Tom spent many years refusing to acknowledge Jon’s existence and even when DNA proved the biological link, he continued to ignore him.
Heartbroken Jon said this drove him into taking drugs.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: “I tried to numb the pain with drugs – I’ve been smoking weed since I was 16 and I progressed to prescription pills, then ecstasy and cocaine.
“I was never a heavy drug user. I just dabbled.
“But when I was selling drugs I wasn’t really using. I bought two pistols.”