By Andy Bartotto
Correspondent
At 84 years old, Sir Tom Jones showed no sign of slowing down during his performance Friday night (Oct. 4) at the Open Air at San Diego State University, his latest stop on his Ages & Stages Tour. He opened the show with “I’m Growing Old,” written by Bobby Cole, a song about coming to terms with aging and mortality.
Jones had many stories throughout the evening, which added to the great performance by him and his band.
Before performing “Green Grass of Home,” written by Claude “Curly” Putman, Jr., Jones introduced the song which was on an album he purchased while in New York City. He was in NYC to perform on the Ed Sullivan show and decided to visit a local record store, and when Jones asked the clerk recommended, he was told Curly Putman’s country album.
Jones had many stories during his performance, and he spoke about performing at the Hollywood Bowl for Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday celebration. Nelson asked if he could perform “Across the Borderline,” and Jones said “let’s give it a ago,” and according to Jones, it went pretty well!
Jones ended the main part of his concert performance his version of Prince’s “Kiss.”
Jones closed out the evening talking about how he and Elvis were playing Las Vegas at the same time. Jones was at Cesar’s Palace and Elvis was at the Hilton. They would go out after their performances and go check out other artists. One night they went and saw Chuck Berry, and Elvis said Chuck was the real king of rock-n-roll.
Setlist:
I’m Growing Old
Not Dark Yet
It’s Not Unusual
What’s New Pussycat?
The Windmills of Your Mind
Sexbomb
Popstar
Green Grass of Home
One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
Across the Borderline
Talking Reality Television Blues
I Won’t Crumble with You If You Fall
Tower Song
Delilah
Lazarus Man
You Can Leave You Hat On
If I Only Knew
Kiss
Encore:
One Hell of a Life
Strange Things Happening Every Day
Johnny B. Goode
