Tom Jones, who published his autobiography on Thursday, and who was unceremoniously dumped from the judging panel of the BBC’s talent show The Voice back in August, has spoken out criticising the show’s format.

Tom Jones with Elvis and Priscilla Presley, 1971 Credit: Alan Band/Getty

“They kept telling us we needed to turn our chairs more,” he told the Sunday Telegraph. ”And I said no, it has to be real. I don’t want to be lumbered with somebody I don’t like. I have a reputation for picking good voices. But they were pressing on me, and that’s exactly what happened. I ended up with this red-haired girl [likely to be Roisin Geraghty-McDonagh] that I didn’t like. They hate it when we don’t turn but I kept telling them it has to be real.”

The veteran singer, who was axed from the show to make way for Boy George and Paloma Faith, also made it clear that the celebrity “coaches” on the show do not actually coach the singers they select in blind auditions. “The real coaches are singing coaches who keep us informed about how far the contestants can stretch themselves.

Tom and Linda Jones at the Ideal Home exhibition in 1965 Credit: Silverside/Rex

“We talk to them daily and discuss songs; can they handle it, that’s not working let’s change it. But they are the ones who do the real coaching work. We are just the faces. We pick them and they work with them.”

Talking about his axing, he said: “I have learned over the years that you can’t rely on anything... so when Mark [Jones, his manager and son] said to me 'They are not renewing your contract, what do you think about that?' I said I couldn’t give a f---. That’s life. I was here before The Voice and I will be here after it."

Tom Jones in Barbados with Marjorie Wallace Credit: Terry O'Neill/Getty

Jones also hit back at critics who have branded him sexist after he was quoted in another newspaper last week as saying that his wife, Linda, had “lost her spark”. “I didn’t say, ‘Linda has lost her spark’. I said, ‘Linda feels she’s lost her spark.’ It’s not the same thing," he said. "She has emphysema and she’s not happy with the way she looks.

“I carry a young picture of her wherever I go because it’s a wonderful memory. But not because she looks better on it. I’ve asked her if I can take a new picture and carry that around, but she doesn’t want me to.

“I did say I love talking to her on the phone because when we talk on the phone we’re young again. Age doesn’t matter on the phone.”

Tom Jones on The Voice Credit: Guy Levy

In the same interview, he was asked if he regretted the string of affairs he had had during his long career, including his relationship with the former Miss World Marjorie Wallace and the Supremes singer Mary Wilson. The Welsh “Sex Bomb” singer was quoted as saying: “No, because I never hurt anybody, it never backfired on me.” In the subsequent furore Jones was accused of sexism and called a “womanising egotist". In his autobiography, however, Jones says that his wife is the only woman he has ever loved.

Tom Jones with Mary Wilson, 1971 Credit: Ron Galella