Tom Jones

That’s right … the Welsh singer best known for songs like “Delilah” and “It’s Not Unusual.”

I first became aware of Mr. Jones when I was 14 years old.

I grew up in Perkins Township, Ohio – a very small town. No gas station or food store. No stop light. No stop signs. Only one thing: a very large Armory owned by the Ohio National Guard who would show up once every few months and march around inside.

Occasionally there were 4-H Club events there, like tractor-pull competitions, and very occasionally there was a concert. In the early sixties, when I was 14, there was a concert scheduled for a Saturday night in February.

The promoters had reserved the Armory for a group of musicians travelling across the U.S. in a bus – up-and-comers who were just starting to get some attention.

The Armory was readied for the big event. A thousand folding chairs were set up and a stage was erected. The concert was promoted in the newspapers of all the big towns nearby: Sandusky, Huron, Milan, Port Clinton.

The concert was scheduled for 8 PM. The bus with musicians arrived at 6 PM. And then at about 7 PM Mother Nature made an appearance: a huge, blinding snow storm that made roads impassable. As a result, no one could get to the Armory except me and some of my farm-boy buddies who happened to live close enough to walk.

You can imagine how excited we were. 1,000 seats available and only 8 of us in the entire Armory. We had never sat anywhere near the front of anything and so we selected the first row. At 8 PM the promoter had no choice but to start the concert.

As you can imagine, the setting was incredibly awkward. 1,000 chairs. Big amplifiers. 8 teenagers in the audience. The first singer went on stage and sang his song as fast as he could. He could not get off the stage fast enough. Ditto for performers 2 – 10. Only the last singer even noticed us. That was of course, Tom Jones.

“Well, I am very disappointed tonight,” he said with his heavy Welsh accent. “But I hope that those of you who are here will remember me.”

And he belts out his new song, “What’s New Pussycat?” like he was in front of 10,000 screaming fans. He smiles at us and leaves the stage … to a standing ovation, of course.

I knew that night that I had witnessed something special. A guy who so loved what he was doing that he gave 110% every single time he performed – wherever and under whatever circumstances.

Tom Jones went on to have a fantastic career and this past weekend I attended a Tom Jones concert in my hometown of Westport, Connecticut. Tom, now 70 years old, put on an amazing show! In fact, for about the last 30 minutes of the show most of the crowd was on its feet singing along and dancing.

And here is today’s message: PEOPLE CAN TELL. People know when you give all you have in an effort to entertain them, educate them, wait on them in stores or restaurants, advise them or represent them. And when you do, the sky is the limit. It may take a while but sooner or later, your “audience” will stand on its feet and applaud … just as I have been doing for 45 years since I first met Tom Jones.

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