Kelly Jones has revealed that confided in fellow Welsh singer Tom Jones, ahead of undergoing career saving vocal surgery.
The Stereophonics frontman opened up about this procedure in a recent interview with Radio X, where he explained how he spoke to Tom ahead of undergoing an operation to correct a potentially career-ending one-time trauma polyp on his vocal cords.
According to Jones, the Sex Bomb singer offered a few pearls of wisdom to him.
“It was called a one-off trauma polyp on my vocal cords", Kelly Jones explained.
The musician released a documentary about his vocal surgery back in 2020, 'Don't Let The Devil Take Another Day', which was directed by Ben Lowe, a mutual friend of Kelly Jones, and one of the interviewers, Tony Tarrant.
“So I went forward. But when Ben was doing that doc, he was just filming me for something else, and he overheard me talking to one of the guys in the management. He said, ‘What did you just say? What have you been going through?’ I said, ‘Oh no, it’s nothing. I don’t want to make all that in the film.’ He said, ‘Have you got footage of all that stuff then?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ I had to, because I had to send it to his guy who was giving me vocal exercises. So, I had all this stuff, and he was like, ‘Oh, I’ll have that.’ And then he made the whole film about that recovery process", Jones stated.
He continued: “Which was weird, because he said, ‘This is probably not from singing.’ And I had a recall where I went to the gym one day, and I’d had a really crap day, and I’d left my keys in my house, and I let out a massive F…".
Detailing this call with Tom Jones, Kelly Jones said: “He said, ‘Oh, don’t talk to me about those.’ He said, ‘Just before I made that song Kiss, I was struggling with my range. He had a look and said it was like a mountain range in there – polyps all over it!’.
He added: "So, he said, ‘Just make sure they use a knife and not a laser.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Because Julie Andrews had a laser, and when they used the laser, after the heat contraction, the vocal cords separate, and she was never able to sing properly again.’ With a knife they slice it off. When I went in to see the surgeon, I said, ‘Are you using a knife or a laser?’ He said, ‘I’m not using a knife.’ So, I said [on the phone], ‘Tom, he said it’s alright, he’s using a knife.’ ‘Alright,’ he said. ‘You go ahead with it!’”.
Back in April, Kelly Jones also spoke about Stereophonics' latest album Make 'Em Laugh, Make 'em Cry, Make 'em Wait', which dropped on April 25.
More on this from Nova here.
