Contents
How did Tom Parker get diagnosed with brain Tumour
In OK! magazine, Parker explained that he experienced “bizarre and unexplained seizures” for weeks over the summer. After three days of testing, Parker said, “They pulled the curtain around my bed and said, ‘It’s a brain tumor.’ All I could think was, F**king hell! I was in shock.
It’s stage IV glioblastoma and they’ve said it’s terminal.” Parker underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment and at the time, told the magazine, “I still haven’t processed it.” Kelsey understandably struggled to process the diagnosis. “Watching your partner go through this is so hard, because how can I tell him not to let it consume him?” she told OK! at the time.
The Wanted’s other band members—Jay McGuiness, Siva Kaneswaran, Max George, and Nathan Sykes—helped support the couple since the diagnosis. “They are gutted by the news, but they’ve been incredibly supportive. Jay has been round to see us a few times since we got the news and is reading up on everything he can, and Max was here last week,” Parker said.
“Siva and Nathan obviously live a lot further away, but all four of the boys have been texting regularly and sending through different articles and possible treatments and therapies that they’re all reading about.” “We don’t want your sadness, we just want love and positivity,” the singer explained.
According to the National Cancer Institute, glioblastoma is the most common type of brain cancer in people 18 and older. Around 14,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the United States. It’s typically aggressive and spreads quickly, though it rarely spreads outside the brain.
It’s most common in active, otherwise healthy men like Parker, although the average age of diagnosis is 64, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, In addition to seizures like the ones Parker experienced, other glioblastoma symptoms include headache, memory problems, weakness on one side of the body, difficulty thinking and speaking, drowsiness, nausea, and vomiting.
The symptoms typically present quickly, as if out of nowhere, though they can sometimes be more gradual, the National Cancer Institute says. While there isn’t a cure, experts have made progress in life expectancy, which used to hover around 8–10 months on average in the 1990s and is now closer to 15–18 months, according to the National Cancer Institute,
And while nearly no glioblastoma patients survived for five years post-diagnosis in the ’90s, around 15% of patients now live to five years after diagnosis. There are few known causes for glioblastoma, though previous radiation treatment to the central nervous system or head can be a factor, the National Cancer Institute says.
Genetic syndromes can also cause glioblastoma in rare cases, per the National Institute of Health’s Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center, In some patients, the first-line course of treatment is surgery, though Parker has made clear that wasn’t an option for his case.
- According to the American Brain Tumor Association, glioblastomas typically have “finger-like tentacles that infiltrate the brain,” making it hard to completely remove them during surgery.
- Afterward, radiation and chemotherapy are standard treatments.
- Even in surgery cases with good results, glioblastoma will essentially always recur because small fragments of cancer are often left behind.
“We have had so many people reach out with positive stories and it’s been incredible,” Parker wrote after an outpouring of love followed his initial diagnosis. “Thanks to everyone behind us fighting alongside us,” he wrote. Related:
Olivia Newton-John “Knew Something Was Wrong” When Her Initial Mammogram Didn’t Catch Her Breast Cancer How I’m Managing My Cancer Care During the Coronavirus Pandemic Alex Trebek’s First Pancreatic Cancer Symptom Was Visible to Others
How much did Tom Parker leave his wife?
EXCLUSIVE: Tom Parker of The Wanted died without writing a will when he lost 18-month cancer battle aged 33 but left £70,000 to his widow Kelsey –
The tragic boyband rocker passed on a net value of £71,500 in his estate He died on March 30 2022 with estate issued just under a year later, on March 15 He left behind wife Kelsey and two young children Aurelia, three, and Bodhi, one
Published: 11:02 BST, 5 April 2023 | Updated: 14:06 BST, 5 April 2023 The Wanted singer Tom Parker was unable to make a valid will before he died, leaving £70,000 to his widow Kelsey. The married father-of-two died aged 33 in March last year following an 18-month battle with brain cancer,
The tragic boyband rocker passed on a net value of £71,500 in his estate, published a year after his death. His estate had a gross value of £835,500 – meaning that he had £764,000 in liabilities, such as debts, funeral expenses and mortgages, when he died. Without a will, his estate was passed to his administrator – his wife Kelsey.
The tragic boyband rocker passed on a net value of £71,500 in his estate, published a year after his death. His will had a gross value of £835,500 – meaning that he had £764,000 in liabilities, such as debts, funeral expenses and mortgages, when he died He left behind his wife Kelsey, 33 and his two young children Aurelia, three, and Bodhi, one.
He died on March 30 2022 with his estate issued just under a year later, on March 15 Parker was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in October 2020 and was given just 12 months to live.11 months later, in September 2021, he sang at the Stand Up 2 Cancer show at the Royal Albert Hall and even set off with his bandmates on a Greatest Hits tour when his tumour was confirmed as ‘stable’.
He left behind his wife Kelsey, 33, and his two young children Aurelia, three, and Bodhi, one. He died on March 30 2022 with his estate issued just under a year later, on March 15. In his last moment the singer listened to Oasis’ 1994 hit Live Forever, from their debut album Definitely Maybe.
- Following his death Kelsey said : ‘It is with the heaviest of hearts that we confirm Tom passed away peacefully earlier today with all of his family by his side.
- ‘Our hearts are broken.
- Tom was the centre of our world and we can’t imagine life without his infectious smile and energetic presence.
- ‘We are truly thankful for the outpouring of love and support and ask that we all unite to ensure Tom’s light continues to shine for his beautiful children.’ Parker was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in October 2020 and was given just 12 months to live.11 months later, in September 2021, he sang at the Stand Up 2 Cancer show at the Royal Albert Hall and even set off with his bandmates on a Greatest Hits tour.
Pictured: Parker was forced to use a wheelchair and remain seated when playing with the band Date night: Kelsey Parker, 32, was spotted enjoying a date with new boyfriend Sean Boggans on Valentine’s Day She went on to thank everyone who has cared for Tom during his illness, adding that he fought the disease until the very end.
A statement posted on the band’s official Instagram account read: ‘The whole Wanted family are devastated by the tragic and premature loss of our bandmate Tom Parker, who passed away peacefully at lunchtime today surrounded by his family and his band mates. ‘Tom was an amazing husband to Kelsey, and father to Aurelia and Bodhi.
He was our brother, words can’t express the loss and sadness we feel. Always and forever in our hearts.’ At the start of March she marked Brain Tumour Awareness Month with a snap of her and Tom posted on her Instagram. Last month Kelsey enjoyed a double date with her new boyfriend Sean Boggans on Valentine’s Day.
How much was Tom Parker worth when he died?
Tom Parker Net Worth What was Tom Parker’s Net Worth? Tom Parker was a British musician and singer who had a net worth of $4 million dollars at the time of his death. Tragically, Tom died on March 30, 2022 at the age of 33 after a battle with brain cancer. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImage) He passed the auditions for The X Factor but did not make it out of the first round. He then joined a Take That tribute band called Take That II. He took part in a nationwide audition for a new singing group in 2009.
- Tom was eventually selected as one of five members of The Wanted.
- Their self-titled debut studio album was released in 2010.
- The group’s first single “All Time Low” hit #1 on the UK charts.
- Their 2011 single “Glad You Came” also hit #1 in the UK and Ireland, and hit #3 in the United States.
- The Wanted won a People’s Choice Award in 2013 and has been nominated for many World Music Awards in 2014.
The group has their own reality series on the E! network called The Wanted Life. All net worths are calculated using data drawn from public sources. When provided, we also incorporate private tips and feedback received from the celebrities or their representatives.
Did Parker attend Elvis funeral?
Tampa’s “Colonel” Tom Parker made Elvis Presley the greatest pop star of all time. But did he ruin him as an artist? – By Bob Kealing All eyes were on Elvis Presley as he strode into a press conference at the International Hotel in Las Vegas on Aug.1, 1969.
- Few noticed “Colonel” Tom Parker, the star’s ubiquitous 60-year-old manager, who stood to the side as Presley took a seat at the long table facing a room full of reporters and photographers.
- Presley, 34, radiated confidence and ambition.
- Thick, dark sideburns framed his handsome, chiseled face.
- He was in shape and fired up to perform live once again.
Presley, who had galvanized young Americans and scandalized their parents with his sexy gyrations and genre-bending music in 1956 and 1957, had lost steam after a stint overseas in the Army and a decade-long slog of acting and singing in forgettable, albeit lucrative films.
But a few months earlier, on Dec.3, 1968, he had topped the weekly ratings with NBC’s “Singer Presents Elvis,” more commonly known as his Comeback Special. Presley’s slick, choreographed performances on the show had reaped rapturous reviews. Riding that momentum, Presley recorded “Suspicious Minds,” which shot to the top of the charts, becoming his 18th No.1 single in America.
At the Las Vegas press conference, he promised reporters he wasn’t giving up acting. “I’m going after more serious material,” he vowed. “And I would like to perform all over the world.” Wearing a garish white suit plastered with the words, “Elvis International in Person,” Colonel Parker, the balding, portly yin to Presley’s slim dashing yang, nodded and grinned.
A Colonel? Hardly. The former Tampa carnival worker, dog catcher and promoter was an illegal immigrant and Army deserter who had been jailed in one of the Sunshine State’s darkest corners and discharged with serious psychiatric issues. Since then, he had ascended to the highest heights of the music business, riding the coattails of its biggest star.
But much of his ascent was built on artifice and downright lies. In those days before inescapable internet exposure, Tom Parker was a man of well-kept secrets. And his biggest secret was about to be threatened with discovery. At the press conference, someone made an unexpected offer: “Mr.
Presley, I’ve been sent here by Lord Sutch Enterprises to offer you 1 million pounds to make two appearances at Wembley Stadium in England.” Pointing to Parker, Presley replied, “You’ll have to ask him about that.” Parker piped up: “Just put down the deposit!” But despite his cheery retort, Parker sensed danger in the suggestion.
Performing in England might rejuvenate Elvis, but applying for a passport could destroy Parker, revealing his masquerade as a legal United States citizen. He had no intention of taking that risk, nor would he allow the star he had so carefully molded to start exercising his independence and choosing what his next career steps should be. Illustration by Regan Dunnick Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball hat and chomping on a cigar, Parker attended the funeral, staying long enough to persuade Presley’s father, Vernon, to give him control of his son’s estate and posthumous earnings.
In an interview for this story, Steve Binder, the director of Presley’s legendary 1968 TV special, offered a blunt explanation for why Presley’s life and career came off the rails: “Elvis made a pact with the devil, and he didn’t know how to get out of it.” Binder, who spent weeks dealing with Presley’s bombastic and bullying manager while making the special, reiterated his disdain.
“Parker was just a con artist, that’s all he was,” he said. Yet there’s no denying that Parker’s shrewd dealings and indefatigable work catapulted the shy, unknown young Elvis to worldwide stardom and made them both a fortune. The complex, confounding and, some would say, poisonous bond between Presley and Parker is still the subject of debate, so much so that in June, Warner Brothers released “Elvis” a major film on the partnership between the two, starring Tom Hanks as Parker. The young Elvis mesmerized fans—and shocked parents—with his explosive, hip-swiveling performances. Photo: Alamy Stock Thomas Andrew Parker was born Andreas van Kuijk on June 26, 1909, the seventh child of a Dutch delivery driver and his wife. After working as a carnival barker in his youth, he came to the United States in the 1920s as an undocumented stowaway.
Parker never owned a U.S. passport, never became a citizen and made whatever moves necessary to avoid detection as an illegal immigrant. He gave himself the name Thomas Andrew Parker and claimed his birthplace was Huntington, West Virginia. Parker never traveled abroad. His fear of being exposed explains why he refused to book Presley to perform in places like Europe and Japan, where he was wildly popular and could have made millions.
With so much hidden baggage in tow, Parker still managed to talk his way into the U.S Army. His Florida story begins on Oct.24, 1931, with an assignment at Fort Barrancas, a scenic encampment built into a bluff overlooking Pensacola Bay. For the first year, Parker carried out his duties well, earning a promotion to Private First Class.
But on Sept.27, 1932, without leave, Tom Parker left his post for points unknown. No proof of his destination exists, but the night Parker went AWOL, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, boasting dozens of horses, clowns and elephants, passed through Pensacola. Given Parker’s background in carnival sideshows, this exciting, one-night-only attraction may have proved irresistible.
Traveling shows were full of people like Parker, looking for adventure and running from their past. They protected their own and rarely asked questions. After being absent for five months, Parker returned to Fort Barrancas on Feb.17, 1933. As punishment for desertion, Parker’s commanding officer ordered him held in solitary confinement for 60 days in the guardhouse jail.
- Parker emerged from two months incarcerated alone in the dark and foreboding amber-brick hillside fortress in visible distress.
- The base doctor suspected he had suffered a psychotic breakdown and was schizophrenic.
- When his condition had not improved after two months of observation, Parker was shipped to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
In August 1933, the Army gave up on Private Thomas Andrew Parker and issued him an honorable disability discharge based on his, “Psychosis, Psychogenic Depression, acute, on the basis of Constitutional Psychopathic State, Emotional Instability.” At the age of 24, the man who one day would be known as “Colonel” Tom Parker, one of the most powerful figures in the entertainment world, was clinically diagnosed as a psychopath.
- With a final Army paycheck in his pocket, Parker was released to rejoin society.
- Parker drifted back to Florida and began to rebuild.
- He made a home in Tampa, where many carnival and circus sideshows encamped for the winter.
- He joined the carny subculture, working concessions and animal shows and observing the well-dressed, front-office men who managed the shows and the money through any means necessary.
In those days, carnivals, with their mix of family fun and lurid sideshows that offered titillating views of “freaks” and half-naked women, were enormously popular, and the frontmen knew how to squeeze every penny out of the fans they called “marks.” Bombastic hyperbole and outright deception were the lifeblood of the shows.
Their managers may have been shady characters, but they were also brilliant showmen who understood human nature. From them, Parker learned many of the techniques he would use to promote and manage Presley. In February 1935, Parker caught the eye of an attractive woman running a cigar stand at the Florida State Fairgrounds.
Twenty-seven-year-old Marie Mott was the divorced mother of a young son, 10-year-old Robert. “She had a coarse, dominant quality about her,” Parker’s longtime associate Byron Raphael told biographer Alanna Miles. “And that apparently attracted him.” From a practical standpoint, being married with a stepson could help Parker, should any entanglements over his immigration status arise.
- According to Miles, the two were kindred spirits.
- Marie, a compulsive shoplifter, wore suggestive outfits to draw customers to Parker’s “gal shows” on the midway.
- Parker ran confidence games, like the so-called, “Bible scam.” He would scan newspaper obituaries for the names of new widows, show up at their homes in respectable attire with an inscribed Bible that he would say their dearly departed husbands had ordered.
Grieving widows often forked over final payment, making Parker a handsome profit. In the shadowland they occupied, a former associate told Miles that Parker followed the carny ethos: “In the real workaday world, you either conned or got conned. It’s as simple as that.” Researchers have found no record of when or where where Parker and Marie were married.
Nor was there a marriage license, perhaps because of Parker’s paranoia about what it took to obtain such legal documents. After all, what did it matter to a couple living among carnies, con men and drifters? Parker’s trajectory towards respectability began in the fall of 1940. He heard about an opening for a field agent at the Hillsborough County Humane Society.
Parker, who operated pony rides and felt at home among animals, got the job. Inside Humane Society headquarters at 3607 North Armenia Avenue in West Tampa, Parker, Marie and young Robert lived rent-free in a furnished, second-floor apartment, a major perk of his new job.
Parker plied his carny acumen to separate people from their money by establishing the first pet cemetery on humane society grounds. He would pay $15 for Fido’s tombstone, then charge the bereaved family $50. A deluxe funeral package could reach $100. Now 31, Parker was about to embark on a side gig that would lead him down the road to riches.
In 1941, Parker used his promotional skills to stage a hillbilly music concert. He rented out the cavernous Homer Hesterly National Guard Armory on Howard Avenue for a show featuring Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff and an up-and-coming comedian, Minnie Pearl, known for her cornpone straw hat and signature greeting, “Howdee!” With the promise of a portion of proceeds going to the Humane Society, a small portion to be sure, Parker convinced a grocery-store chain to sell tickets at a discount.
The store paid for a newspaper ad, and cashiers sold discounted show tickets at multiple Tampa-area locations. “Every cashier in a three-county area was working what amounted to a box office,” Pearl says in Miles’ book. “The man was thinking even then.” The Hesterly show was a rousing success. Parker took on partners and started promoting more shows.
He decided to visit Nashville and approached a young crooner named Eddy Arnold about becoming his manager. “Seemed like he knew what he was talking about,” Arnold remembered. “And I was a hungry boy.” Arnold agreed to Parker becoming his manager and taking 25 percent commission for his services.
- In the fall of 1944, Parker booked Arnold for two weeks of Florida theater dates.
- According to Miles, the young singer was impressed with Parker’s indefatigable zeal: “He was a ball of fire, he worked hard, he got up early, and he was a non-drinker.” He also booked Arnold in package shows across the South featuring other artists, including Ernest Tubb, who distrusted Parker and kept him at a distance.
In 1948, Parker reached another milestone in his reinvention. With a penchant for exaggerating his credentials, he had sometimes called himself “Doctor.” Now, as a reward for helping a former carny buddy get Jimmie Davis elected Governor of Louisiana, Parker was awarded the honorary title of “Colonel” in the Louisiana State Militia.
- From that point, the former army deserter insisted on being addressed as “Colonel” Tom Parker.
- Parker’s deal to represent only Eddie Arnold flourished until 1953 when Arnold found out Parker had been booking other acts, like Hank Snow, on the side and fired him.
- The “Colonel” was humiliated and for a time, looked outside the music business for new opportunities.
By the summer of 1955, Parker was back in the music game and booked Snow on a Grand Ole Opry package tour of Florida with Faron Young and Slim Whitman. He hired a Jacksonville schoolteacher and aspiring songwriter named Mae Axton to help promote the concerts.
Parker got wind of a buzz developing about one of the new performers touring Florida, a young singer from Memphis named Elvis Presley. Presley had a terrific voice and evoked a raw sexuality heretofore unseen in conservative country package shows. Parker was at the baseball stadium in Jacksonville on May 13, 1955, when Presley announced to his screaming audience: “Girls, I’ll see you backstage.” Female fans chased Presley down to his dugout dressing room, mobbed the young singer and tore off his shirt.
Parker witnessed it all. From that point, Axton recounted, she could see the “dollar marks” in Parker’s eyes. Since Presley was not yet 21, Parker made getting in his parents’ good graces top priority. Elvis was devoted to his parents, particularly his mother, Gladys, and Parker paid to bring them to a show in Daytona Beach and made sure they knew he had bought their son a fancy new suit in which to perform.
When Parker found out Gladys was a big fan of Hank Snow, he arranged a personal meet-and-greet. Although Vernon Presley was impressed with Parker and believed he had his son’s best interests at heart, Elvis told friends that Gladys never fully trusted the promoter. Parker convinced Presley he would never be a national star given the limited distribution of his singles.
He made an audacious move by challenging Memphis-based Sun Records impresario Sam Phillips, who owned Elvis’s contract, to “name his price” to sell the contract to a major recording studio. Phillips, the man who discovered Presley, Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, shot him a number he thought Parker could never meet: $35,000, an astronomical amount for a relatively unknown singer’s contract.
With an evangelist’s zeal, Parker convinced executives at RCA records to sign on. On Nov.21, 1955, Parker strong-armed Elvis Presley’s contract away from Phillips and Sun Records. By January, Parker had arranged for Presley to appear on the Dorsey Brothers’ “Stage Show,” televised nationally on CBS. That same month, Presley recorded his first LP for RCA.
One of the songs, “Heartbreak Hotel,” written by Mae Axton and Tommy Durden in Axton’s Jacksonville home, became a huge hit. While “Heartbreak Hotel” was rocketing to No.1, Parker finally grabbed the brass ring. On March 26, 1956, 21-year-old Elvis Presley signed a contract with Parker to be his, “sole and exclusive Advisor, Personal Representative, and Manager.” On May 5, 1956, Presley’s debut LP reached No.1 on the Billboard charts.
Parker had ensured he would get a big piece of the action. Most contracts gave managers 10 to 15 percent. Parker took 25 percent. He told Presley’s first manager, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bassist Bill Black, that they would earn weekly salaries, nothing more. The two had been with Presley from the beginning.
When they wanted to fatten their sound with drummer D.J. Fontana, Parker made the two pay Fontana out of their own cut. Although they would soon make nationally televised appearances with Presley on the Milton Berle, Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan shows, the two musicians struggled financially.
At a low point, Moore had to hock his guitar to pay a divorce settlement. In September 1957, Moore and Black resigned. Parker had succeeded in isolating the star from his band and gaining more control. By then, Presley had already made his first foray into acting in the film, “Love Me Tender.” On Aug.14, 1958, Presley’s beloved mother Gladys died.
Soon after, Presley left the States for Germany, accompanied by his father Vernon, for a two-year stint in the Army. Parker stayed behind, tending to business, releasing singles and making sure young fans wouldn’t forget Elvis. The following year, Vernon started dating Delores Stanley, a divorced mother of three.
The two were married in 1960. Elvis took it as a betrayal and was never close to his father afterwards. With Gladys gone and Vernon out of the picture, Parker became the dominant adult figure in Presley’s life as well as the overlord of his career. He dictated all the financial deals, what Elvis would wear, how he would enter a town, where and when he would perform and the songs he would sing.
Parker poured endless work into promoting Presley’s performances and films. Parker also embraced something new for recording artists: merchandising deals that brought in millions from 80 different branded items, from charm bracelets to record players.
- He even figured out how to pry cash from people who disapproved of Elvis, selling buttons that proclaimed “Elvis is a Jerk” and “I Hate Elvis” along with the popular “I Love Elvis” pins.
- In 1979, after Vernon died, a probate judge discovered Parker was receiving a staggering 50 percent of Presley’s posthumous earnings.
An attorney appointed by the judge estimated that Parker had defrauded the estate of more than $7 million in just the three previous years. The investigation also uncovered a 1973 agreement giving RCA all rights to 700 Elvis songs. Parker received $7.2 million.
- Presley got $4.6 million.
- Parker was sued by the estate in 1982, and an out-of-court settlement was reached.) In fact, although the initial contract had given him 25 percent, Parker had renegotiated his contract to receive half even before Presley died.
- In 1968, when a reporter asked if it were true that he got 50 percent of everything Elvis earned, Parker blustered, “That’s not true at all.
He takes 50 percent of everything I earn.” From Parker’s standpoint, that made sense. After all, he had devoted himself to the career of his client—his only client, as he liked to point out. And the more Elvis retreated into drug addiction, the less attention he paid to his career and the more work fell on Parker’s shoulders.
- Comedian Nipsey Russell acknowledged Parker’s success in making Elvis the King of Rock and Roll when he quipped, “Every entertainer should go to bed at night and pray he finds a Colonel Tom Parker under his bed when he wakes up in the morning.” Yet there’s another side to the story.
- Parker helped make Presley rich and famous, but he never understood his protegee’s tremendous talent.
The young Elvis was a true original, and not only because of his sexy, bad-boy charisma. His extraordinary voice, with a range so wide it’s been called “many voices in one person,” and his explosive performances fused a groundbreaking blend of musical influences—African American blues singers, R&B artists, the gospel choirs of his youth—into a new kind of music that was coming to be known as rock and roll. The former carny never missed a chance to promote Elvis, whom he sometimes referred to as “my attraction.” Photo: Alamy Stock At a time when Black artists languished outside the mainstream, he embraced their music and was outspoken about his admiration, telling a reporter, “They played it like that in their shanties and in their juke joints, and nobody paid it no mind’ til I goosed it up.
- I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to a place I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw.” Parker had a tin ear and no interest in Presley’s artistic aspirations.
- A true carny, he saw his act as a product designed to separate the marks from their money.
Indeed, he often referred to Elvis as “my attraction.” And in his zeal for making lucrative side deals, he sometimes sacrificed his client’s long-term interests. For example, he would not allow Presley to record a song without getting publishing rights, nor would he permit songwriters to meet and work with Presley.
- Those missed creative opportunities and collaborations could have boosted Elvis to new artistic levels—and earned him and Parker even more.
- On March 26, 1960, Presley was out of the Army and back in Florida to tape a Frank Sinatra TV special at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach.
- To reach beyond a youthful audience, Parker had decided to tone down Presley’s image from a leather-clad jailhouse rocker to a middle-of-the-road, movie-star crooner.
Parker directed Presley to wear a tuxedo and perform bland numbers like “Witchcraft” and “Stuck on You.” The performance foreshadowed much of the coming decade, when Parker’s film deals reaped a fortune but turned Elvis into a culturally irrelevant has-been and parody of his former self.
- In 1968, director Steve Binder managed to get Presley’s career off life support with the comeback special.
- But that was the last flash of Elvis as an exciting artist.
- Binder never saw or spoke with Presley again.
- I was an outcast,” he said.
- The Colonel circled the wagons.” Artists—even the greatest artists—grow and improve when they work with people who understand and nurture their gifts.
The right mentor can help an artist find his or her unique voice. Legendary artist-mentor partnerships abound—novelist Thomas Wolfe and editor Max Perkins, The Beatles and manager Brian Epstein, Ray Charles and Atlantic Records producer Ahmet Ertegun.
If the young Elvis Presley had a manager who appreciated and encouraged his powerful talent, he might have blazed a deeper and more lasting musical trail—and his life might have had a happier ending. It was not in Parker’s nature to consider how his decisions damaged Presley artistically. As Presley muddled through the same-old, same-old tours in big cities and backwater towns, his prescription drug abuse spiraled out of control, but Parker never addressed that, either.
His sole concern was keeping the money train rolling. On Aug.16, 1977, 42-year-old Elvis Presley died at Graceland, and the money train derailed. Thanks to recent poor business decisions by Parker, Presley’s estate was valued at only $7 million. Parker moved to Las Vegas, buying a mid-century modern pool home, where he lived with his former secretary, Loanne, whom he had married in 1990, four years after Marie died.
- Parker died Jan.26, 1997, at age 87.
- Until the end, money remained his obsession.
- He had a voracious appetite for games of chance, perhaps born among the rigged booths of dice and Kewpie dolls in the carnival sideshows, and he spent as many as 12 to 14 hours at a time placing large bets in the casinos, hobbling in with a cane in his final years.
He had made an estimated $100 million from Presley’s career, surely the richest haul made by any carny in history, but the audacious imposter who gained worldwide renown as “Colonel” Tom Parker gambled most of it away. Bob Kealing is the author of four books on Florida history and culture, including “Elvis ignited, The Rise of an Icon in Florida.” He is a six-time regional Emmy Award-winning journalist and two-time recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award. In 2022-23, University Press of Florida will release his latest book, about the Beatles and 1964 Florida. This article originally appeared in the Summer 2022 Issue of FORUM Magazine. Visit our collection at the Digital Commons at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg by clicking here,
Why didn’t Elvis fire Colonel Parker
Why did Elvis not fire him? Firstly, the Colonel was responsible for much of his success, and they both knew it. And the Colonel knew more about Elvis than Elvis himself did, so Elvis understood that there would be a lot of trouble for him if he let the Colonel go.
Who went to Colonel Tom Parker funeral?
Where is Colonel Tom Parker’s grave? – funeral was held at the Hilton Hotel and was attended by a handful of friends and former associates, including Eddy Arnold and Sam Phillips. It has been reported that his ashes were taken to Memphis.
Why did Tom Parker cry in the Elvis movie
Elvis Presley performs ‘Hound Dog’ in 1956 – Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Elvis Presley and Tom Parker spent all their time together (Image: GETTY) Elvis Presley’s astounding performance left Tom Parker emotional (Image: GETTY) Elvis’ wife at the time, Priscilla Presley, was backstage watching in awe at the jaw-dropping performance her husband was delivering. Priscilla wrote in her memoir, Elvis and Me, that she was “astounded” by the incredible sights and sounds she saw.
Once the concert had come to an end, Colonel Tom Parker furiously bounded into the backstage greenroom looking for Elvis. Priscilla recalled Colonel Parker bursting into the room on the brink of emotion at how perfectly Elvis had performed. DON’T MISS. Elvis – Dolly Parton ‘I cried all night after turning down The King’ Elvis Presley was ‘still in love’ with Priscilla long after divorce Elvis Presley’s pilot shares stories of The King’s lavish generosity Priscilla wrote: “The most touching moment was when Colonel Parker arrived with tears in his eyes, wanting to know where ‘his boy’ was.” She added: “Elvis came out of the dressing room and the two men embraced.
I believe everyone felt their emotion in that moment.” Colonel Tom Parker was likely moved to tears for two reasons. One, was that he loved seeing “his boy” do so well at his craft. But the other reason was purely financial. After the show, the International Hotel’s representatives revealed they were “very pleased” with Elvis’ set and box office sales.
Priscilla recalled that the following day Elvis and Parker signed a five-year contract to appear twice a year – January and August – at the hotel. There was an even more unexpected part of the deal, as well. The International Hotel agreed upon an enormous salary: $1 million. This was an unheard-of sum at the time and is the equivalent of $7.5 million today.
Elvis’ new deal was a much-needed boost to his career that sped him along for the following few years. SOURCE / SOURCE
Did Colonel Parker take 50 of Elvis earnings?
Todd said the Colonel was “no worse than any other” and noted his generosity with fans, saying: “As far as the British fans were concerned, he was better than most managers were because he really did take time to meet the fans. “To me, personally, he was very, very nice,” he said.
So I saw a different sort of Colonel Parker from how many people possibly believed he behaved. “It was claimed he took 50 per cent of Elvis’ earnings which was not true. He took 25 per cent which, at that time, was the industry standard.” Todd claimed there was only a 50/50 split between Elvis and the Colonel when it came to licensing and merchandise, insisting: “But it was never a 50/50 split on his earnings.” The Elvis Presley Fan Club president said it was easy for people to claim Colonel Parker had taken 50 per cent of Elvis’ earnings, “as it was easy to say he had his arm up Elvis’ back to make him perform”.
SCROLL TO TAKE THE ULTIMATE TOM JONES QUIZ – PUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST
Did Elvis sue Colonel Tom Parker
What Really Happened To Colonel Tom Parker? – After Elvis’ death in 1977, the Elvis Presley manager continued on as if The King were still alive. Never one to miss an opportunity to make money off of his prized client, Colonel Tom Parker jumped on Elvis’ death as a marketing cash grab. He attended Elvis funeral dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap, avoiding any display of emotion.
- He then did the unthinkable, convincing Elvis’ father, Vernon, to sign over control of Elvis’ movie and singing “career” to him.
- Parker was eventually sued by the Elvis estate over mismanagement, which found his dealings over the years to be unethical and extortionate.
- In 1983, he was paid $2 million dollars in an out-of-court settlement, which had him turn over any and all audio and video recordings he had of Elvis and terminated his involvement in any Elvis-related earnings for five years.
Despite the court controversy, Parker continued to appear at Elvis-themed events, from anniversaries to special events, etc. Having been a staple in The King’s life for so long, he was well known to Elvis’ ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, who humored his appearances at such venues, regarding him as a family friend despite their clashes over the estate.
Parker was an avid gambler, which is believed to have been the source of many of his “fast money” dealings with Austin Butler’s Elvis, He was believed to have been in debt to the Las Vegas Hilton for over $30 million at one point, which led to his eviction from the property after Elvis’ death. Parker suffered a stroke in 1997, dying at a hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada after years of declining health, survived only by his second wife.
After a lifetime of earning well over $100 million managing Elvis, The Colonel’s estate was barely worth $1 million upon his death.
How old was Colonel Parker when he died?
Tom Parker Is Dead at 87; Controlled Presley’s Career (Published 1997) See the article in its original context from January 22, 1997, Section B, Page 8 TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Col. Tom Parker, the strict, unorthodox and controversial manager who orchestrated Elvis Presley’s career from 1955 until the singer’s death in 1977, died yesterday at Valley Hospital in Las Vegas, Nev.
- He was 87.
- The cause was complications from a stroke, said Bruce Banke, a longtime friend and a former executive at the Las Vegas Hilton.
- Perhaps the best-known manager in show business, Mr.
- Parker – universally known by the honorary title Colonel – oversaw Presley’s rise from a phenomenon in the South to a worldwide superstar.
Yet many of Presley’s fans resented Mr. Parker, accusing him of urging the singer to embrace shlock instead of substance, of charging the singer exorbitant commissions and of keeping Presley from touring outside of the United States. Mr. Parker was widely reported to have come to the United States as an illegal immigrant from the Netherlands and to have feared that he would not be allowed back into the country if he went abroad with Presley.
- Still, Presley called Mr.
- Parker and his first wife, Marie, ”the finest people in the world.” A rough-spoken, imposing, cigar-chomping businessman, Mr.
- Parker rarely gave interviews and was known for fabricating his background.
- He claimed to be a native of West Virginia and said he ran away from an orphanage to join the Great Parker Pony Circus, which he said was run by his uncle.
A more likely story is that he immigrated to the United States around the age of 20 and traveled with circuses, settling down in Tampa, Fla., and marrying Marie Mott in 1935. Among his many early jobs, he spent time as a dog catcher in Tampa, and he founded a pet cemetery.
Meanwhile, he started working as a local promoter for appearances by the country singers Gene Austin and Roy Acuff and the film cowboy Tom Mix. Mr. Parker began his management career with the singer Eddy Arnold, establishing a reputation as an all-consuming patriarch by moving in with the singer and his family in Nashville.
In 1948, he wangled the honorary colonel’s title from Louisiana’s Governor, Jimmie Davis, and henceforth asked to be addressed as ”Colonel.” Almost foreshadowing the route he was to take with Presley, Mr. Parker landed Mr. Arnold roles in several Hollywood movies and booked him in Las Vegas.
In 1953, Mr. Arnold fired him, and Mr. Parker went on to start his own promotion company and to manage the singer Hank Snow. He discovered Presley through the recommendation of Oscar Davis, who worked for Mr. Parker. He booked Presley as an opening act on a Hank Snow tour and began trying to persuade Presley, his parents and his manager, Bob Neal, to let him provide professional guidance.
In 1955, Presley agreed to accept Mr. Parker as an adviser. He promptly orchestrated Presley’s departure from Sun, the small label where he had started recording, and arranged for him to sign a contract with RCA Records. His first single at RCA, ”Heartbreak Hotel,” became the top-selling record of 1956, and by the end of the year Mr.
- Parker was his ”sole and exclusive adviser, personal representative and manager,” their contract said. Mr.
- Parker devoted his life to Presley.
- He sold programs and counted tickets at his shows.
- He arranged everything from Presley’s career-making appearances on ”The Ed Sullivan Show” to his profitable but bland Hollywood films.
He persuaded Presley to abandon performing and public appearances in the mid-1960’s and masterminded his comeback in Las Vegas in 1969. Colleagues said Mr. Parker’s carnival experience made him an excellent judge of character and a fearless negotiator who was able to extract unprecedented sums for Presley’s appearances and interviews, building the singer into a commercial empire that was worth $35 million by 1964.
- The manager also gave himself good deals, taking commissions as high as 50 percent.
- After Presley’s death, he was sued by the singer’s heirs for fraud and mismanagement, and a Memphis court ruled that he had no legal rights to the Presley estate.
- To settle litigation with RCA, he sold his Presley master recordings to the company for $2 million.
After his wife died in 1980, he remarried and moved to Las Vegas, where he lent his experience to entertainers and served as an entertainment adviser to the Hilton Hotel chain. He is survived by his wife, Loanne, of Las Vegas. A version of this article appears in print on, Section B, Page 8 of the National edition with the headline: Tom Parker Is Dead at 87; Controlled Presley’s Career,
Did Tom Parker have chemo
Tom Parker’s brave battle with cancer and final treatment weeks before death The Wanted singer Tom Parker has sadly passed away following his battle with stage 4 glioblastoma The Wanted’s Tom Parker teases new book in emotional video
- The Wanted’s Tom Parker has tragically died at the age of 33 following a battle with brain cancer.
- His beloved wife Kelsey shared the news on, confirming the singer “passed away peacefully” surrounded by his family.
- Tom has left behind his wife and their daughter Aurelia, two, and son Bodhi, 11 months.
- She posted on her social media page: “It is with the heaviest of hearts that we confirm Tom passed away peacefully earlier today with all of his family by his side.
- “Our hearts are broken, Tom was the centre of our world and we can’t imagine life without his infectious smile and energetic presence.
Tom Parked tragically died at lunchtime today ( Instagram/ @tomparkerofficial) “We are truly thankful for the outpouring of love and support and ask that we all unite to ensure Tom’s light continues to shine for his beautiful children. “Thank you to everyone who has supported in his care throughout, he fought until the very end.
I’m forever proud of you.” The Wanted star announced he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, which doctors had said was ‘inoperable’ and ‘terminal’ in October 2020. Speaking to with Kelsey, he said: “I’m still in complete shock, it’s so much to take in.” Kelsey added: “It has been a crazy six weeks.
We had an inkling that something was wrong in July, but we never could have imagined it was this.” Kelsey is heartbroken by her husband’s tragic death ( Instagram) Tom continued: “I knew something wasn’t right, but I never expected it to be this. You never think this will happen to you.” Kelsey concluded: “It still doesn’t feel real.
- Sadly, life expectancy on average for such an illness ranges from three months to 18 months after diagnosis.
- Tom opened up about his heartbreaking battle with stage 4 glioblastoma in a documentary last year.
Tom was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer in 2020
- Speaking about how he reacted to the difficult news about his life-threatening tumour after visiting the hospital and being diagnosed, Tom revealed he spent three months in his bed trying to process the illness.
- Sitting on the edge of his bed at the home he shares with wife Kelsey and their children in Kent, Tom started sobbing as he said he thought to himself: “I’m just gonna lie here and die.”
“I spent three months of last year just laying in that bed,” he said. “There was just so much to contend with. You’re not just dealing with cancer, you’re dealing with how other people can treat you. The Wanted in November 2021 ( Getty Images for BAUER) “There’s so much running through my mind. I don’t want people to treat me differently because I’ve got something.”
- He also admitted he “couldn’t stop thinking about death”, tearfully adding: “It’s so hard to think about the future, because I genuinely don’t know what it holds any more.”
- Elsewhere in the documentary, Tom revealed he wanted a prognosis, but says wife Kelsey and his brother didn’t want him to find out.
- He said he wanted to know “how long” he has to live, and “if” he was going to die.
- “I don’t know if you’ll really know how you feel about death until you’re faced with it,” Tom added, explaining that the general prognosis for glioblastoma is “not amazing”.
Kelsey and Tom share a daughter and son together ( Instagram/ @tomparkerofficial)
- Since finding out about his difficult diagnosis, Tom began treatment.
- He revealed the devastating effects of the gruelling treatment he endured.
- Since that diagnosis, Tom underwent 30 radiotherapy sessions and six rounds of chemotherapy.
- While the treatment enhanced his chance of prolonging his life, Tom admitted that the gruelling sessions left him unable to “walk around the kitchen”.
- In his C4 documentary, Tom told bandmates Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Nathan Sykes: “I feel alright, mate – my voice is always a bit hoarse after treatment.
“When you get told you have an incurable cancer, everything just happens so quickly. Everyone’s been really lovely. “Loads of people have reached out. It puts things in perspective you know what I mean, like if they’ve fought the battle against it then I can.”
- Nathan Sykes joked: “I tried dancing round the kitchen the other day, it weren’t happening.”
- Tom countered with the heartbreaking admission: “I can’t even walk round the kitchen let alone dance.”
- Just earlier last month, Tom was given revolutionary treatment in Spain.
- Tom spent a whole week in a private hospital in the hope to become fit enough for his band’s comeback shows.
- He jetted off for treatment after previously saying how shocked he was by the lack of help and funding for cancer patients in the UK.
He flew out to Spain for private treatment just weeks before his death ( Tom Parker/Instagram)
- He hoped the revolutionary £4,000 a week treatment in Spain could swings things in his favour.
- However Tom’s wife was heartbroken as she announced the news today.
- His bandmates also released a statement shortly afterwards.
- A tribute posted to the band’s official social media pages read: “Max, Jay, Siva, Nathan and the whole Wanted family are devastated by the tragic and premature loss of our bandmate Tom Parker, who passed away peacefully at lunchtime today surrounded by his family and his bandmates.
“Tom was an amazing husband to Kelsey, and father to Aurelia and Bodhi. He was our brother, words can’t express the loss and sadness we feel. “Always and forever in our hearts.” You can find this story in Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. : Tom Parker’s brave battle with cancer and final treatment weeks before death
What celebrities had brain Tumours?
Acting
Name | Life | Survival |
---|---|---|
Pat Paulsen | 1927–1997 | — |
Slim Pickens | 1919–1983 | — |
Kate Reid | 1930–1993 | — |
Mark Ruffalo | 1967– | 2001– |
How old was Tom Parker when he was diagnosed?
Musical career In October 2020, at the age of 32, Parker was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. The Wanted reunited in September 2021, but after a sudden deterioration in his condition, Parker died of complications from glioblastoma on 30 March 2022, at the age of 33.
Why is Colonel Tom Parker important
What Elvis Gets Right—And Wrong—About the Real Colonel Tom Parker In 1963, Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s audacious manager who had gotten his start selling candy apples in carnivals, read in the paper that Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidential yacht, the U.S.S.
- Potomac, was going to be salvaged.
- Some called it his “Floating White House.” But Parker, who was born in Holland in 1909 as Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk and never became an American citizen, didn’t care about that.
- He saw the Potomac as just another snow job, as he called his art of the con.
- He would donate the rusting hulk to charity and put a P.R.
feather in the cap of his only client: Elvis Presley. On February 14, 1964, five days after the Beatles made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, Elvis sat at a press conference with the Colonel on the pier at Long Beach, California. With them was actor Danny Thomas, there on behalf of St.
Jude, the Memphis research hospital Thomas had founded to help find cures for catastrophic childhood diseases. He graciously accepted the “piece of shit,” as Thomas is said to have called the boat, to sell for cash. As the press cameras clicked away, and the freshly painted Potomac gleamed in the background, the Colonel chuckled to himself.
Elvis had paid $55,000 for the thing, but the Colonel, snowman to the core, apparently had only had one side of the old yacht painted—the side that faced the dock. The other remained in its dilapidated state. Why bother to paint both sides? Just present the side you want to show.
In his frenetic, dazzling, exhilarating mess of a movie, Elvis, Baz Luhrmann has done much the same when it comes to Colonel Parker, showing us only one side of a highly complex and intensely fascinating and mysterious character. As someone who knew Colonel Parker and had three, tense, three-hour meetings with him over a two-year span in the ’90s, I admit there were times I felt a chill of evil from him that scared the hell out of me and made me fear for my personal safety, especially during a ride through the Vegas desert.
But Luhrmann’s Colonel is straight out of Faust, dripping with the evil of Mephistopheles. Aside from arguably being the father of American popular culture through the marketing and merchandising of his client, the Colonel negotiated one of the first $1 million-a-picture deals for a Hollywood actor, landed Elvis the highest-paying Vegas contract for the time, and protected the exploitation rights for dead celebrities through his swift actions for the Presley estate in 1977.
He also staged the first live international solo concert via satellite with Elvis’s Aloha from Hawaii special in 1973. But in Luhrmann’s treatment, he’s Satan in a snowman sweater. And the bombastic director, as vulgar in his own way as Parker was in his, pays him little respect for his significant business acumen.
Tom Hanks plays this villainy broadly with cartoonish gusto, veering somewhere between Snidely Whiplash and Sydney Greenstreet. Though Austin Butler is a little too pretty as Elvis, and can’t replicate the hypnotic pull of Presley’s exotic good looks, he’s nonetheless a convincing prince from another planet.
Why was Tom Parker wearing sunglasses?
The Wanted’s Tom Parker too weak to sing in final performance as Siva takes over
- delighted fans as he took to the stage during his final performance with the band in Liverpool on March 17, two weeks before he tragically passed away.
- Despite battling brain cancer at the time, Tom joined his on stage as he sat on a throne to perform the group’s hits and Gold Forever at the M&S Bank Arena.
- The band supported Tom, who was too frail to sing, as Siva Kaneswaran, 33, picked up his vocals while Nathan Sykes, 28, never left his side during what would be their last time together on stage.
- During the performance, fans saw a weak Tom join the boys on stage as he looked emotional and pointed his microphone to the audience who sung the lyrics back to him.
Tom on stage during his final performance (Image: YouTube)
- Events are back on the agenda for 2022 and we couldn’t be more excited.
- After two years of staying at home it’s time to start living life to the fullest again.
- But with so many music, culture, and sporting events happening and so many festivals taking place this year, the only issue is deciding which to go to.
- Take a look at just some of the events taking place and for a full list of everything taking place in 2022 check out the to start planning your amazing year.
\n \n \n”,”sponsorshipType”:”Sponsored by”,”sponsorshipName”:”VisitScotland”,”sponsorshipUrl”:”https://www.visitscotland.com/events”,”isSponsorReachDomain”:false,”relatedPicture”:,”commercial”:true,”features”:,\”combinedPrompt\”:true,\”scope\”:\”/\”,\”options\”:,\”subsets\”:}”,”pubmaticVideoPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”prebidTestLibrary”:”false”,”amp.readmore.link.target.enabled”:”true”,”readNextRecommendedGoLive”:”2023-06-21″,”video.mobile.disabledAutoplayGeoLocations”:”IE”,”resetTagOnAirshipChannel”:”true”,”readNextMobileFeliz”:”true”,”blackFridayWidget”:”false”,”prebid.waitConsent”:”true”,”partner.quicklinks.bar”:”true”,”justpremiumDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”amazonVideoTagEnabled”:”true”,”mvtTests”:””,”nonIframeMantisRecommender”:”true”,”webPushNotifications.serviceName”:”airship”,”publicationId”:”3c335d19-a809-4326-896a-e57e5d1d431f”,”lotameLightningTagV2″:”true”,”aylReplace”:”true”,”pubmaticDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”enableMagicLink”:”true”,”adslotsFixedSize”:”true”,”mantisRecommender.domainsRHC”:”businessInsider,ok,scottishdailyexpress,edinburghlive,footballlondon,footballscotland,glasgowlive,liverpool,aberdeenlive”,”xandrPSPVideoPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”mantisRecommender.useIntTracking”:”true”,”chatEnabled”:”true”,”outstreamPlayerUKEU”:”taboola”,”enableAboutTopics”:”true”,”viafouraComments”:”true”,”convergeVideoPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”video.jwplayer.playerId”:”PIRKF81I”,”mediaGridVideoPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”amp.taboola.outstream.enabled”:”true”,”mantisRecommender.useCommonAdunitBottom”:”true”,”mantisRecommender.hbEnabled”:”true”,”collectiveDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”fbia.converse.enabled”:”true”,”modularCss”:”true”,”manualReconsent”:”1″,”domainRedirectExceptions”:”prod-proxy.tm-aws.com”,”nobidDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”bookmarksEnabled”:”true”,”M101.apiUrl”:”https://partner-widget-api-prod.tm-awx.com/monitizer/1432/compare/prices/gbp_en”,”publicationName”:”Daily Record”,”video.jwplayer.enabled”:”true”,”loadIrisManually”:”true”,”photoStoryGalleryClickThrough”:”true”,”systemjs.preload”:”true”,”disableAdvertMaxHeight”:”true”,”viafouraEnabled”:”true”,”taboolaOutstreamBypassGAM”:”true”,”xandrPSPDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”mantisRecommender.enableOnTopicPage”:”true”,”chartbeatHeadlinePageTypes”:””,”breakingNewsPull”:”true”,”nobidVideoPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”mantisRecommenderReplacementRHCMPUDisabled”:”true”,”magniteDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”smallerFloatParkVideo”:”false”,”amazon.fpd.signals.enabled”:”true”,”viafouraNewCdn”:”true”,”tripleliftNativePrebidEnabled”:”false”,”richaudienceVideoPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”swipeNavigation.endpoint”:”https://mab.data.tm-awx.com/pwa-swipe”,”ampQuantcastCMPEnabled”:”true”,”ozoneOutstreamPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”loginRadiusAPIKey”:”415307d0-d73a-49d3-9958-1c42c71165ee”,”enableInArticleMPUExtra”:”true”,”readMoreWithImage”:”true”,”xandrVideoMaxDuration”:”30″,”googleOneTapConsentCheck”:”false”,”nativeAdsFallback”:”true”,”amp.aylEnabled”:”true”,”prebid.sendAllBids”:”true”,”ovpType”:”primis”,”improvedigitalVideoPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”prebid.sendHBKeys”:”false”,”irisAutoplayVideosMax”:”4″,”enableUserProfile”:”true”,”standaloneMpu”:”true”,”smartAdServerDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”mantisRecommender”:”false”,”jwplayer.trackingOnConsent”:”true”,”prebidLoadAtRuntime”:”true”,”webPushNotifications.pushDisplayService”:”airship”,”enableCallToActionBar”:”true”,”notificationTrayEnabled”:”true”,”customHtmlElements”:”true”,”readNextRecommended”:”true”,”mvtTests.enable”:”false”,”mantisRecommender.basePartnership”:”true”,”cmpIncludeSubdomains”:”true”,”swipeNavigation”:”true”,”blockthrough.enabled”:”false”,”customAdExperience”:”false”,”adFixedTopSlot”:”true”,”ampCommentsEnabled”:”true”,”externalBrandCSS”:”true”,”LoginRadiusDomain”:”https://auth.reachplc.com”,”quantcastCMPInline”:”true”,”authUI.env”:”prod”,”displayPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”ozoneDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”nativeAppBanner”:”true”,”ixDisplayPrebidEnabled”:”true”,”commentCountEnabled”:”true”,”newslettersBaseUrlProtected”:”https://status.data-services.tm-awx.com/subscriptions”,”video.ima3Version”:”3.6″,”videoPrebidEnabled”:”false”,”delayVideoAdsUntilConsented”:”true”,”videojs.optimized.load.enabled”:”true”,”fbia.chartbeat.inbody”:”false”,”appNexusVideoPrebidEnabled”:”false”},”parentUrl”:”https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/wanteds-tom-parker-frail-sing-26603006″}}}> As reported in Nathan and Siva stuck by the singer’s side for Gold Forever, Max George and Jay McGuinness headed off the platform and to the main stage to hype up the crowd. Max and Jay later joined Tom and sung Glad You Came to him, which had the poignant lyrics: “The sun goes down, the stars come out. And all that counts is here and now. My universe will never be the same. I’m glad you came”. The rest of the band supported Tom by wearing sunglasses, as the singer chose to wear shades after his eye was forced shut due to his grade 4 brain tumour. Joined by his bandmates, the musician sat on a throne on a platform for the group’s hit songs Glad You Came and Gold Forever (Image: YouTube)
Tom was showered with love and support from his biggest fans – adoring wife Kelsey and their children Aurelia, two and Bodhi, one – who were there to cheer him on in the audience. The emotional video of Tom’s final performance was shared on YouTube and fans took to the comments section to commend him for his bravery and strength, despite his deteriorating health.
One wrote: “Seeing this is so heartbreaking. Seeing him so sick is horrible. At least he’s not in pain anymore. But I’m so sad that he’s gone”. Another fan added: “What a warrior Tom was to be on stage with his fellow bandmates here despite his deteriorating health. Lovely to see Siva and Nathan stick by him as well whilst Max and Jay hype it up with the crowd at the front.” A third said: “It was hard for Max to get through this.
You can really see the brotherhood. Tom must have been a really good man for the world to be hurting by his loss. RIP Tom.” The singer, who was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in 2020, was forced to pull out of a series of The Wanted’s gigs, including the Glasgow show at OVO Hydro, after he was too weak to walk.
He then travelled to Spain to receive revolutionary treatment at a private hospital on the Costa del Sol. After flying back to England, Tom joined his band on the tour, supporting them from backstage as well as making brief appearances on stage. Max called him a “hero” at what, unbeknown to them at the time, was Tom’s last show.
Sharing a black and white snap of them both, Max wrote: “It’s been an epic few weeksOne last show my boyYou are a true hero mate. Can’t wait for the next tour with youLiverpool Can you hear us???!” In another post he shared a photo of the boys sat around Tom as he sat on the throne with a huge smile on his face.
We did it. @tomparkerofficial, YOU did it! All I can say in words is thank you for making such beautiful memories over the last few weeks. “I love every single one of you who stuck with us. May our hearts be full, like our drinks tonight, may we sing and dance til’ we lose our minds, we are only young if we seize the night, tonight we own the night.” Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox.
Sign up to our weekly Showbiz newsletter, : The Wanted’s Tom Parker too weak to sing in final performance as Siva takes over
Why didn’t Elvis fire Colonel Parker
Why did Elvis not fire him? Firstly, the Colonel was responsible for much of his success, and they both knew it. And the Colonel knew more about Elvis than Elvis himself did, so Elvis understood that there would be a lot of trouble for him if he let the Colonel go.