About 4 years ago my husband and I took a family trip to Las Vegas with his brother and father. In part as a joke, and in part as a way of having some alone time on the family trip, we decided to take in a Tom Jones show. On that fateful evening, we marveled at the size of the theater as we ordered a bottle of champagne from the waitstaff, we made small-talk with our tablemates who were big fans, and we wondered exactly what it would be like to see this dried up old performer do his Vegas Schtick. House lights went down, stage lights went up, and following a larger than life introduction, including a video, a big voice, and maybe some lasers, Tom Jones (that aforementioned dried up old performer) emerged from backstage. That was it... I was officially hung up, on a dried up old performer.

Thinking about it now, I know exactly what it was that drew me in, it was his passion. He was totally part of his own joke, but didn't care, and he was so passionate about his performance. The energy in the theater was palpable, and I wanted to be part of it, and I never wanted it to go away. It felt like Tom Jones was throwing the best party, and it was just for me. He felt so confident and sexy, that it made me feel confident and sexy.

Even though I have only seen him in concert 3 times, I try to get that feeling back every time I listen to his music. For me, Tom Jones is not about the man, it's about the essence of the man. I know, it sounds deep, but it's really not. My love for Tom Jones is really about the personal experience I had at that first concert. I can't necessarily recreate that first experience, but every experience I have with Tom Jones echoes that experience. Often when people have a celebrity that they have this kind of reaction to, they want to meet that celebrity. I don't really want to meet Tom Jones (I realize that now), I just want to feel the energy of his performance. People have tried to turn me off to him by drawing attention to how much work he's had done, or the fact that he's so much older than I am, or that his music is campy, or even his unsavory lifestyle (rumors [some confirmed] of being unfaithful to his wife). I don't really care, because these things cannot take away the experience I had at that first concert. Tom Jones makes me happy darnit!