Tom Jones Pondered Whether He Was ‘Partly To Blame’ For His Wife Melinda’s Death

Back in 2016, Sir Tom Jones‘ wife Melinda Trenchard tragically passed away from lung cancer. Now the iconic singer is speaking out about it, even saying he blamed himself at one point.

The 78-year-old recently chatted with Daily Mail of the guilt he feels over his wife’s death. Tom revealed that when he sings his and Melinda’s favorite song, Bob Dylan’s “What Good Am I,” he can’t help but think about how he could have saved Melinda. “The song is about someone who turns their back and someone who is not seeing what is really happening,” the singer told the outlet. “It started to mean more. It’s like, ‘Why couldn’t I have stopped it?'”

The “It’s Not Unusual” singer continued, “I was reading into the lyrics thinking, ‘Jesus Christ, was I partly to blame? Should I have woken up before?’ I thought, ‘What could I have done?'” Tom added, “I couldn’t really have done anything because by the time we found out it was too late, so there’s not a lot you can do. But then you start to think, ‘What if I had forced her to go to the doctors?’ Because she didn’t go. You think, ‘S–t, maybe I should have said she had to.'”

Tom does go on to reveal that singing the song, along with therapy, helped him grieve. “I got some of my musicians together and that was the first step,” he said. “Singing has really helped me. Time is a healer.” Tom added, “Another thing about growing old that I don’t particularly like is that you lose friends. But the great thing about going on and doing something you love to do is that you start to make new friends.”

Tom and Melinda married in 1957 and remained together until her death. They went on to only have one child together, a son named Mark Woodward.