TOM JONES - Love, Loss & Regrets

THE SINGER SHARED A DEVOTED, BUT COMPLICATED, UNION WITH HIS CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART

- LOUISE A. BARILE and Rick Egusquiza

Tom Jones isn't coy about the meaning behind his new song "I Won't Crumble With You If You Fall." It's a tribute to his late wife, Linda, to whom he was married for 59 years. "This song is trying to tell you that people that you love, sometimes they need to be backed up," he said before performing it on The Voice UK recently. "You need to give them strength and encouragement."

Since Linda's passing from lung cancer in 2016, Tom, 82, has had time to think about the way he and his wife supported each other over the years. "I'm glad we had our lives together, but I wish she was here now. We would be old together," says Tom. "There was one love of my life, and that was Linda."

The performer was born Thomas Woodward in South Wales and met Melinda Trenchard, known as Linda, when they were both 12. "We grew up together, and we loved one another ever since we saw one another," recalls Tom. Back then, they bonded over their shared love of music. "We could have been a double act if she wanted to," he says. "But she didn't have the desire for it."

They wed in 1957 when Tom had just turned 17. Linda was 16 and eight months pregnant with their son, Mark. To support his new family, Tom worked construction and sang in pubs at night, with Linda's blessing. "She was 100 percent behind me," recalls Tom. "She said, 'Whatever I've got to do to help you get to where you want to go, or where we want to go, I will do it, we will do it.'"