One flaw in John Lennon’s tempestuous personality was his inability to make a positive first impression. Most of the time, Lennon could get away with saying the wrong thing because he was part of The Beatles, which had almost everybody fawning over him. However, Tom Jones is cut from a different cloth than most in the music industry and was ready to resort to violence with Lennon.
Although most would shrivel in Lennon’s presence because he was the biggest star in world music, Jones was a hardened figure who couldn’t be intimidated. After all, before finding fame, the crooner cut his teeth performing in working men’s clubs across South Wales, which made The Cavern look like a tea party in comparison. As much as he admired Lennon’s talent, that didn’t mean he’d accept being treated like an inferior despite the difference in their stature. Their awkward first encounter came after Jones waved goodbye to Wales and moved to London after signing with Decca Records. It took a while for his first hit to arrive, and for a period, it looked like it would never happen. Then, ‘It’s Not Unusual’ came along in 1965, and Jones suddenly became a superstar who was sharing bills with The Beatles.
As first hit records go, ‘It’s Not Unusual’ was the perfect introduction from Jones to the masses. The song that changed Jones’ life and, in the blink of an eye, the days of playing working men’s clubs in South Wales were a distant memory. Yet despite having a hit record to his name, Jones still retained the same attitude as in those early days. Therefore, his first solution for solving confrontation was with his fist.
While on the promotional trail for his single ‘Once Upon A Time’, Jones appeared on the TV programme Thank Your Lucky Stars. The show should have been a dream come true, but it got off to a terrible start, thanks to Lennon. “I wanted to see The Beatles because I’d never met them, and I’d never seen them,” Jones recalled to Far Out in an exclusive interview. “So I was sitting in the audience with my manager in the afternoon when there was nobody in there, and I’m waiting for The Beatles to come on.”
“John Lennon comes out on the stage, and he says, ‘It’s not a unicorn, it’s an elephant’,” he said, recalling how Lennon deliberately got the lyrics wrong to ‘It’s Not Unusual’. The singer continued: “I thought, ‘What the fuck?’ He says, ‘How you doing, puff?’ and I said, ‘Come up here, you Scouse bastard, and I’ll show you.’ My manager said, ‘Don’t, he’s a Liverpudlian, that’s his sense of humour.’”
Fortunately, Jones’ manager prevented the singer from burning bridges with the Fab Four and punching the prodigal Lennon on this occasion. “Gordon Mills says, ‘It’s his sense of humour, don’t’. Which, of course, it was, and we became friends later on. He was taking the mick or taking the piss, so that was his sense of humour,” the singer added.
This event was a big occasion for Jones, which he almost screwed up before it had even begun. It was one of his first-ever appearances on television, and a chance to prove himself to the millions watching at home.
Although he initially viewed Lennon’s comments as an insult, he later understood that they came from a warped place of love. Discussing the incident later in an interview with the Liverpool Echo,” Jones added: “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’.”
Lennon’s decision to use homophobic slurs is despicable, even in the 1960s, and Jones’ anger was understandable. However, perversely, Lennon only acted in this hideous manner because he respected Jones and his fondness for ‘It’s Not Unusual’. If he genuinely hated the track, Lennon would have never introduced himself to Jones in the first place and ignored him. Despite his musical prowess, Lennon often made blunders during social encounters, and in this instance, his cruel tongue almost caused him a black eye.
