Sir Tom Jones has told how counselling pulled him back from the brink as the grief of losing his wife threatened to kill him.
The singing legend admits staring into the abyss after Linda, his beloved partner of 59 years, died of lung cancer.
There were days he could barely get out of bed and he could not even think about continuing his career.
Urged on by son Mark, Sir Tom turned to a therapist in Los Angeles who helped him find a way through the darkness.
Sir Tom – who is judging The Voice final tonight – said it gave him the strength to keep going.
He said: “Mark helped tremendously. He said ‘There is this lady you should see’.
“She counselled a lot of things.
“She said to me.
‘You have got to carry on. If you don’t, you will die’.
“I thought of my family, my son, my daughter and my grandchildren – all of that’.”
Linda – full name Lady Melinda Rose Woodward – died at Cedars Sinai Hospital in LA on April 10 last year.
Tom, her childhood sweetheart, and family were by 75-year-old Linda’s side.
In the weeks that followed he cancelled concerts and feared he would not be able to carry on with his career.
Sir Tom said there have been times when his grief was so overwhelming he could barely force himself out of bed.
He said: “When my wife passed away, God bless her, I didn’t know whether I would make it. There were days when I felt I couldn’t get up. You don’t want to get out of bed to start with.”
His remarks come months after he told how he would dream about Linda, then wake up distraught when he realised she was not there next to him.
He said: “I hear her voice. I see her a lot at night. When I dream she’s still here and then I wake up and she’s not, that’s the hardest.”
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