Paul McCartney had to talk Tom Jones out of FIGHTING John Lennon

 Paul McCartney, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Ringo Starr





www.express.co.uk
Tom Jones: Paul McCartney had to talk Delilah singer out of FIGHTING John Lennon
TOM JONES had to be talked down from starting a fight with John Lennon by The Beatles star's bandmate Paul McCartney, newly unearthed interviews reveal.
By MINNIE WRIGHT
PUBLISHED: Thu, Mar 26, 2020


Tom Jones and John Lennon nearly came to blows upon their first meeting
(Image: GETTY)

Tom Jones rubbed shoulder with the creme de la creme of the music industry both in the UK and on the other side of the pond after his career went stratospheric in the mid-1960s. Such was the calibre of the company the Delilah hitmaker kept that he was close friends with Elvis Presley. But when it came to fellow Brit John Lennon, it started off as a very different story.

Jones first crossed paths with The Beatles on pop music show Thank Your Lucky Stars in 1965.

Both acts were appearing on the programme to perform and, curious, he decided to take a set where the audience would be later on in order to catch a glimpse of the Fab Four in action during rehearsals.

Things got off on the wrong foot, however, when Lennon appeared to mock Jones’ hit single It’s Not Unusual.

The first thing the notorious joker did was to sing a line from the song, inserting his own comical lyrics in the place of the original words.

“John Lennon was the first one out on the floor,” Jones recalled in an interview with Channel Bee. “And he looks up at me and he says [to the tune of It’s Not Unusual], ‘It’s not a unicorn it’s an elephant.’

“He said, ‘How you doing you Welsh p**f?’” the Welsh-born singer continued.

“I said, ‘Come up here you Scouse p***k, I’ll show you!’”

Thankfully, Jones’ manager Gordon Mills and Lennon’s Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney were on hand to diffuse the situation.

Tom Jones's first impression of John Lennon was the Beatle mocking his hit single
(Image: GETTY)

Mills quickly chipped in to tell Jones that was merely Lennon’s sense of humour.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Jones later revealed how McCartney had stepped in as well.

“Paul McCartney said to me, ‘If John Lennon made fun of a song, it means he likes it, because he wouldn’t make a comment on it if it didn’t strike him,’” he said.

Speaking to Channel Bee, Jones claimed he and Lennon had been friends from then on, saying he understood the humour behind the comment.

Tom Jones reportedly later told Elvis Presley he had wanted to give John Lennon a 'hiding'
(Image: GETTY)

However, he reportedly made a comment to his pal Presley which suggested he wasn’t quite as chummy with Lennon after the near-fight as he might have implied.

According to the Daily Mail, the King had taken a disliking to Lennon from the first moment he met him, their differing views on the Vietnam War being a particular point of contention.

On one occasion, he reportedly confided in Jones that he thought Lennon should’ve been “kicked out” of the US “long ago”.

At this point, the publication claimed, Jones shared his own grievances regarding The Beatles legend.