Sir Tom Jones was knighted in 2006

Sir Tom Jones has admitted that he wishes he'd made more of an effort to help pal Elvis Presley before he died.

The US singer passed away in 1977 from a heart attack.

Tom, 68, had not seen him for the last 2 years of his life so didn't realise how ill Elvis had become.

‘I didn’t know Elvis was sick,’ he tells Weekend. ‘I thought he was just getting lazy – he was getting heavy and pushed people away from him.

‘The first thing that hit me after he died was [that] I should have gone and seen him.

'[His wife] Priscilla called me and said: “When you show up, you give him a spark.” So I thought maybe I could have given him that shot again.’