Cerys Matthews<\/a> has her friend Sir Tom Jones to thank for her happy marriage – because the music legend played Cupid for her and her husband.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Cerys Matthews and Tom Jones at the 2008 Q Awards<\/p>\n
The former Catatonia singer has been married to Steve \u2018Abbo\u2019 Abbott – a music manager and member of post-punk band UK Decay – since 2011.<\/p>\n
But the couple may never have got together if it wasn\u2019t for Tom – who duetted with Cerys on their festive hit ‘Baby, It\u2019s Cold Outside’ – playing matchmaker and telling both Cerys and Steve that the other one was attracted to them.<\/p>\n
Steve – who is playing the ‘Forever Now’ festival in Milton Keynes this summer with UK Decay – said: \u201cI lived in America, so I missed Catatonia. I only knew them because I was working with Tom Jones and he recorded when her. It was Tom actually that put us together. He and Mark, his son, knew we had a lot of common interests. <\/p>\n
“We were out with them in Ronnie Scott’s one night, I was her manager, and she went to the toilet and Tom said, \u2018Hey, boyo, I think she fancies you.\u2019 I’m like, \u2018Get out. Get away from it.\u2019 I went to the toilet, and he said to her, \u2018I think your manager fancies you.\u2019 No conversation happened, and that’s how we ended up together.”<\/p>\n
\nOne of those shared interests is, of course, music, and Abbott insists that he and the ‘Mulder and Sully’ hitmaker both value meaningful lyrics over melody in songs.<\/p>\n
\nSpeaking to BANG Showbiz, Abbott – who raises five children with Cerys in their blended family – shared: “A great song with great lyrics, oh my goodness. <\/p>\n
\n“I’ll always listen to the lyrics. Some of the radio shows I listen to, you get a great tune that starts, and then the lyrics, \u2018I want to be me \/ I want to be free \/ Can I be free? I want to be me \/ That’s what I want to be.\u2019 I’m like, \u2018Oh my God. Bloody awful lyrics.\u2019 I just can’t listen to it. <\/p>\n
\n“Actually, my wife Cerys is the same, the lyric is so important. The melody is important but having a great lyric is so important.”<\/p>\n
\nTickets for ‘Forever Now’ are available now via AXS and Ticketmaster.<\/p>\n
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