Cerys Matthews has her friend Sir Tom Jones to thank for her happy marriage – because the music legend played Cupid for her and her husband.
Cerys Matthews and Tom Jones at the 2008 Q Awards
The former Catatonia singer has been married to Steve ‘Abbo’ Abbott – a music manager and member of post-punk band UK Decay – since 2011.
But the couple may never have got together if it wasn’t for Tom – who duetted with Cerys on their festive hit ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ – playing matchmaker and telling both Cerys and Steve that the other one was attracted to them.
Steve – who is playing the ‘Forever Now’ festival in Milton Keynes this summer with UK Decay – said: “I 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.
“We were out with them in Ronnie Scott’s one night, I was her manager, and she went to the toilet and Tom said, ‘Hey, boyo, I think she fancies you.’ I’m like, ‘Get out. Get away from it.’ I went to the toilet, and he said to her, ‘I think your manager fancies you.’ No conversation happened, and that’s how we ended up together.”
One 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.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz, Abbott – who raises five children with Cerys in their blended family – shared: “A great song with great lyrics, oh my goodness.
“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, ‘I 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.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Bloody awful lyrics.’ I just can’t listen to it.
“Actually, my wife Cerys is the same, the lyric is so important. The melody is important but having a great lyric is so important.”
Tickets for ‘Forever Now’ are available now via AXS and Ticketmaster.
