Tom & Jerry

Friday, April 27, 2001 | 4:27 a.m.

Could it be? Butterflies in my stomach while waiting by the phone for an interview, something I have done thousands of times over the past 27 years?

Ah, but only once with Tom Jones.

A legend. The legend.

He's a hard man to catch -- always moving, onstage and off. His agent says he doesn't do a lot of interviews. Too busy. Working on a new album. On the road 200 days a year. Europe. East Coast. West Coast. He's at the MGM Grand through May 9.

The man is a machine -- a perpetual-motion machine. Once he was a love machine, but he's 60 years old now and more mature. He takes care of himself so that he won't hurt the voice that rescued him from the coal mines of Wales 44 years ago.

The phone rang.

And one of the most familiar voices in the world said, "Hi, this is Tom Jones."

Las Vegas Sun: Is your career more about your music or about entertaining?

Tom Jones: First of all, it's got to be about the music. That's got to be right first. Then what you do with it onstage, that becomes the entertainment part. The image thing comes from that. The problem with my image, if there is a problem, is it came from reviewers looking at what was happening at my shows and not really reviewing my voice. They were reviewing the audience, really.

That still happens now. I did a huge British tour at the end of last year. I would say 75 to 80 percent of the audiences were kids. Yet the reviewer still reviewed the audience. He said the audience was reacting in such a way, which was great because there were so many young people there, but he said (the kids) loved it and that they shouted for "Delilah," and they shouted for some of Tom's oldest songs. But the reviewer still didn't say whether I was singing them good or not -- whether I was as good as I've ever been or anything like that.

Sun: Is that frustrating for you, that critics are focusing on the wrong things at your shows?

TJ: A little bit, yes. I don't mind them reviewing the audience, because it must be striking them that something is happening and you can't deny that ... but it would be nice if they would mention the voice as well.

Sun: The voice must still be great. "Reload," the album of duets you released in 1999, was No. 1 in the United Kingdom. But it was never released in this country. Why is that?

TJ: I recorded it for an independent label in England called Gut Records. Then, in Europe, it was put out by V2, that's Virgin 2. When you sign with an independent label they've got to go with the bigger label worldwide. So we signed a deal with V2 for Europe, then a different record company for Australia -- different territories, different companies.

From the States, we had offers from three or four different labels that wanted to go with it, but V2 said they wanted to go with it for the States as well ... It looked like it was all going through when all of a sudden V2 said they had such a bad year in the States with records they were releasing, they couldn't come up with the advance (payment) and everything that was promised. The deal, in the end, fell through. It's amazing, really. America is the only country the record is not out in.

My fans are saying, "When's it coming out?" You can get it, but it's at the megarecord stores that have an import area, where it's more expensive. It's not that readily available, so you've got to go looking for it.

Sun: What is the significance of the title, "Reload?"

TJ: Ha! I'll tell you what it came from. I saw James Brown (on television) when he was talking about when they picked him up and put him jail. (In the interview) he was going on, talking about when they stopped him in this truck and he panicked and he fled. He said they finally stopped him and he said, "The policeman shot at me with a shotgun and I was about to talk to him and then he started to reload," and he said, "By the time he reload I was gone!" He was going on about this "reload' all the time and it was sticking in my mind, you know. That was a few years ago, but that reload thing stuck in my mind. We thought it would be a good title for an album because, when you think about it, it's sort of like reloading.

Sun: Are you involved in any other projects right now?

TJ: We are recording another album. I've started a few tracks, so we're going to do some by myself with different producers, different songwriters. Maybe we'll include some of the tracks from the "Reload" album on the new one ... it's up in the air at the moment what this album is going to be, but we want it out by the end of the year.

We've blocked certain parts of the year for recording. After Vegas I've got three weeks blocked off. Now whether that will be done in L.A. or London remains to be seen. It all depends on what shows up, you know, what comes up with producers and songs.

Sun: Are you looking for any particular kinds of songs for the new album?

TJ: I like to do a mixture of stuff. Until I actually hear the thing, I never know -- as long as it's modern. As long as it's fresh. I wouldn't want to do an album of things that producers might think would be safe. I don't want to be safe. I don't want to do a nice album. I want to do an edgy album, something that will make people say, "Jesus, that's something."