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Tom Jones had shoes and socks stolen by fans, recalls The Script star

Danielle HerbertBBC Wales
Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images Danny O'Donoghue (left) and Sir Tom Jones (right) standing next to each other. They are both looking at the camera. Danny is doing a peace sign pose. They are both smiling.Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images
The Script's Danny O'Donoghue and Sir Tom Jones worked together on The Voice UK

Sir Tom Jones once had his shoes and socks stolen by fans when he went for a paddle in the sea, according to the lead singer of The Script.

Danny O'Donoghue said his late dad, Shay, used to play in Sir Tom's band and drive the Welsh legend around while on tour.

On one occasion, during a trip to the beach in Ireland, Shay was "having a smoke at the car" when Sir Tom lost his footwear.

The Pontypridd-born star took his shoes and socks off, leaving them in the sand while he went into the sea, but on his return he found they had been stolen by fans.

O'Donoghue, who worked with Sir Tom on The Voice UK, said the singer told his dad: "You need to go take me to get some new shoes."

Danny O'Donoghue in a BBC Radio Wales studio. He is sat in front of an orange BBC Radio Wales microphone and is wearing black headphones. He is wearing a green jacket and a white long sleeve top. He is wearing two large silver rings.
O'Donoghue says Sir Tom is a "music man through and through"

O'Donoghue said Sir Tom was playing a show in Dublin at The Old Shieling Ballroom when the two took their seaside trip.

When O'Donoghue reminded Sir Tom of the story, he replied with surprise: "Was that your father?"

"You get your shoes stolen, of course you're going to remember," O'Donoghue told Bronwen Lewis on BBC Radio Wales.

Shay O'Donoghue, who played in the band The Dreams, died in 2008, aged 63.

O'Donoghue said he had a "kinship" with Sir Tom when they appeared as judges alongside Jessie J and will.i.am on The Voice UK.

The pair worked together on the hit show for two seasons before O'Donoghue left the programme in 2013.

They would be "sipping champagne" until the early hours of the morning together, O'Donoghue said.

"Sometimes they'd be setting up breakfast in the hotel and we were all sitting there talking about songs," he added.

The singer has previously described how a six-hour champagne drinking session with Sir Tom once landed him in hospital.

"We are cut from the same cloth, we like the same things," said O'Donoghue.

"He's just a music man through and through, I have a lot of time for him."

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