Tom Jones said that the first track on his new album is dedicated to his late wife Linda who encouraged him to "carry on" after her death.
The veteran Welsh singer appeared on RTÉ's Today where he spoke to Dáithí Ó Sé and Trishauna Archer about his latest release Surrounded by Time.
He said the first song, I Won't Crumble, is dedicated to Linda, who he was married to for 59 years before her passing in 2016 after a battle with cancer.
The couple were childhood sweethearts and married when they were just 16 years old after they grew up together in south Wales.
Jones said they had "known one another since we were kids" and she "knew me very well".
He said: "She told me, she knew she had lung cancer, and we talked about it, and I thought that I was going to fall and she said 'you can't fall with me, you've got to carry on, because you won't be able to live unless you sing, I know that.'"
"That's really what she told me not to do and that's why I'm singing this song, this is for her."
When asked by presenter Ó Sé how he kept carrying on after her death, Jones said candidly: "First of all I had to go and see a therapist in Los Angeles, a grief therapist and she said 'your wife wants you to carry on', and I said 'yes, she does.'"
The therapist asked him what would be the most difficult song for him to perform, which he said was a Bob Dylan song What Good Am I? about "a person standing by while something happens to somebody else" which "really hits a sore spot" with him.
She said he should tackle that one first and if he can get through it, then he's "on the road to recovery".
Jones continued: "So I did, I got a few musicians together and I tried a few other things first and then I tried that one and then we went to Hampton Court in the same year to start a tour.
"That first show the audience was aware that I was under pressure and then you realise that the audience really lifts you up.
"After that first show I realised that I could do it and the audience are there with you, and that's a big deal. It opened my eyes, I thought 'well this is going to save me' as opposed to hurt me, it's going to lift me up. And that's what's happened.
"I can't wait to get back to doing live shows because that's where I live really, on the stage."
He added that he hopes to be back on the road in the middle of July.
