Sir Tom Jones has spoken of his late wife's shock upon hearing the news that he had been axed from The Voice by the BBC. The 76-year-old star – who is returning to the ITV version of the show on 7 January – sat down to discuss his love of music, and the loss of his beloved spouse during a candid interview with Lorraine on Thursday.
"She couldn't believe it," he said of Linda, who sadly passed away in April last year. "She said, 'Are you sure you don’t want to do The Voice anymore?' when it happened, and I said, 'No, no, it's not my choice', and she said, 'You must be joking!'
Sir Tom Jones opened up about his late wife Linda during a candid interview on Lorriane
"She was annoyed, but then she passed before [knowing he was returning on the ITV version] but she would be very happy that I am back on it."
Speaking about his love of music, the star added: "It's saving my life. Music is more important even to me now than it was before, because it’s just… she would want me to. And coming back on The Voice, because she loved The Voice."
The 76-year-old star is set to appear on the new series of The Voice, alongside Jennifer Hudson, Gavin Rossdale and Will.i.am
Sir Tom also opened up to Lorraine about his wife's devastating death. "When she passed it was so sudden, in April, she found out she had lung cancer and it was too late, it was terminal, and it was very, very quick," he said. "So it really knocked the stuffing out of me because we'd been together since we were kids you see. We were kids together. And she has always been there, so it was a strange thing."
He continued: "I didn't know whether I would be able to carry on and I just didn't know but, you know, my family, and my son and my daughter-in-law who are also my managers and Mark my son, he said, 'Look if you don't sing, you'll die, you'll just shrivel up and die, do you want to do that?' I said, 'No not really'. So we tried it, we sort of broke-in easily. I got some musicians together and we tried some songs out because I didn't know whether I could sing and then we did."