Songfacts®:

• It was an encounter with Bono in a Dublin pub that was the original spark for this number. Tom Jones asked the U2 frontman if he would write him a song. The veteran Welsh singer recalled to Music Week magazine: "Bono said to me 'OK, let's talk.' It was almost like he was interviewing me; he said, 'Tell me about yourself. What was it like growing up in Wales? What interested you?' We sat down for a couple of hours and next thing you know, I saw him a few months later in London and he had the song written. Bono told me, 'There is a lot of you in the song.' I said 'Do I get a writer's credit?' He said 'no!'"
• Bono and his US bandmate, The Edge, both perform on this autobiographical track. Jones recalled to the The Sun newspaper November 14, 2008 his delight when he received their demo of the song.
  
  Said Jones: "Bono tries to sound like me on it. He told me, 'I was trying to do my best Tom Jones impression'. I said, 'It's great'. When I recorded it with Future Cut (producers who have also produced for Lily Allen, Kate Nash and Estelle) we'd send it back and forth to Bono and let him have a listen. He loves it and is very complimentary. It was great working with him."
• The Sun asked Jones about the song's title. He replied: "I told Bono, 'I'm not a sugar daddy!' He told me it was a cheeky, ballsy thing and not to be taken literally."
• Part of the song deals with Jones' time growing up in Wales and working on building sites. He told Music Week: "There's a lyric in that song that says: 'You gotta get your hands dirty/When you're digging a ditch.' But it still comes back to the shirt and the shoes, Bono even said that. I said when I started off, I've gotta look the part. I got the shirt, I got the shoes, I got what it takes. I got all this s--t and he's put all that in there."