There are certain songs on our playlist that transcend just being songs. They’re moments, portals to place and time in our lives, and in many cases the sound is timeless no matter how many decades have passed. When we heard Push the 2nd single on Matchbox 20’s debut album in 1997, we were hooked not only to the sound, lyrics and visuals of the video - but we knew that vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rob Thomas had something to say that was relevant to where we were and where we’d be in the future!
This sentiment hasn’t changed with countless hits from his band as well as his solo career that has included Smooth with Carlos Santana, Lonely No More, and This is How A Heart Breaks which continues to connect with people at a visceral level.
As this month’s cover of Athleisure Mag, we talked with Rob while he is on tour for his 6th non-holiday solo album which drops on Sep 5th. We wanted to know more about the band, his creative process, All Night Days, his tour, and more!
ATHLEISURE MAG: You were in my hometown in Indy a few days ago and I know you’re traveling throughout the Midwest right now.
ROB THOMAS: We were just there. We were just through Indianapolis and then last night, we were outside of Detroit and today, we have a day off on the bus just chilling out in St. Louis!
AM: When did you realize that you wanted to be an entertainer.
RT: I think when I exhausted all of the other options and I wasn’t good at anything else, you know? I think that when you’re lucky enough to find something that you feel like you’re good at and also – you know, when I was a kid growing up, I was in the South and I didn’t understand cars or sports and so trying to figure out where I fit in – it wasn’t until I found other people maybe in high school when I met the drama kids and the musical theater kids and they kind of spoke to me. Maybe it was the outcasts and the kids on the fringe. As I got a little older, it was musicians that were that way. It was like this fraternal group of the people that I felt like it just made sense to me.
So it was like at some point, maybe when I was like 19 or 20, it was like, I think that I want to do this as I was really writing songs. I thought, “I think that I want to do this.”
AM: Wow!
You’re so talented as a songwriter, a vocalist, and you play multiple instruments. Were you formally trained or did you just come across it all – how did all of this come together?
RT: Yeah, no – when I was a Freshman in high school, my buddies in my band were Seniors and then they all graduated and they went to Berklee College of Music and they would come back and they would bring me their music books. So I started to learn how to sight-read (Editor’s Note: It is the ability to read and perform a piece of musical notation you’ve never seen or played before, without any prior preparation or practice) chords and trying to understand relationship between notes and they would give me some of their books and I would kind of learn from that. So it’s pretty self taught and if you put me next to someone who is a really good player, it’s pretty obvious that I am self-taught.
I was alone with a guitar, I was alone with a keyboard, and I needed to learn how to write songs. I had melodies in my head, and I had songs in my head so I had to learn how to play just enough so that I could be able to write.
AM: Wow that’s interesting how you were able to access all of that as Berklee College of Music is a great school known for its jazz and popular music. My great uncle was Joe Henderson and I know that they have courses about him there.
Before we delve into your latest solo album, I can’t talk to you without talking about your band Matchbox 20. I remember when the debut CD came out, I was a Freshman in college when it came out. So for me, it was like all the things that I needed to learn about adulting and how to navigate emotions and scenarios that I hadn’t had to do before, it came from listening to your music and realizing that these things are normal! How did you come together as a band and did you think at the time that you would have this impact that resonates with so many people over all these decades?
RT: No. I mean, I think it’s funny. When you’re starting out, you have to have some sort of naïve suspension of disbelief that you’re going to make it – right? If you really thought about the odds, it would be so daunting that you would collapse under the weight of it. So I think that there was always this idea that we were going to be successful. I don’t think that we understood what that meant.
AM: Right.
RT: And I certainly don’t think that we had the ability to look forward 30 years later and realize the gift of being someone’s nostalgia. Like having this song like you said, that you went to college and this was your CD and that some people for one reason or another, at an event – someone’s wedding or their graduation and there was a song that was tied to it.
So I think that like, the gift of longevity and the ability to be around for awhile is bigger than like a level of success! It’s more of like being woven into the fabric of these fans and these people and I think that that’s a pretty special part of it.
AM: Is there going to be anything coming up that highlights the 30 year anniversary – that’s literally around the corner!
RT: Yeah, I mean, listen – we’re out on the road right now with the solo work and we’re still back and forth with Matchbox trying to plan out next year! Luckily, the end of next year marks when we put out our first record 30 years ago so we’re probably going to do some festivals next year to start gearing up for something really big at the end of the year and then touring 2027 around the world!
AM: Oh wow!
When it comes to creating music, where do you start in terms of the creative process and how is that different with you as a solo artist, you with your band, or when you’re collaborating with other artists?
RT: I mean, most of it is the same right? I write all the time. When I’m sitting down to work with someone – when I worked with Willie Nelson, we just sat down for 2 days and played each other’s songs. And then when I was done, he had written down 3 songs and he said, “I want to do these 3 songs.” If I’m writing with somebody else, maybe they come in with an idea and we can build on that. As far as if I am writing for someone or with someone, I’m just kind of drawing from this bucket of songs that I have worked on. If I go to Matchbox, I’m like, “do you guys like this song or how about this song?” I think that we all work that way so it’s never really like, gearing up for – well, I’m writing this song for this person so I need to get into this mindset. At some point, if someone wants to write with me, they probably want my point of view. So they will put their spin on my point of view.
AM: How would you define the Rob Thomas sound?
RT: Geez. I don’t know! I’ve been really fortunate that fans have allowed me to step outside and just do – I mean, if you listen to 3AM say 30 years ago, and you listen to Hard to Be Happy now, or if you listen to Lonely No More – those sound like different bands. They could be different artists. But I think that my voice is my voice and it ties them all together. So I don’t know that I have a certain – I write songs and I think about people and how people interact with each other. It’s just a very normal thing, right?
AM: Mmm.
RT: Like if I write about something going on in my life, it’s my job to write about how that thing makes me feel because you understand that – that has happened to you. You don’t need to know about me and my wife having a fight, you just need to know, “oh I know how you feel!”
AM: You’ve said that as a kid of the 80s, there are elements of that throughout your work. How do you add that aesthetic into your music while combining the various genres that you have been on and still making it sound current even if some of it is older?
RT: You know, I think part of it is that I have always went into this genreless. I think that that’s because when I grew up in the 80s, 80s radio was genreless. You would have MC Hammer played right after Van Halen and played right after Whitney Houston and then right after Bobby Brown and then Ozzy Osbourne.
AM: 100%.
RT: All of these things would play because MTV, that was our national radio!
AM: Oh yeah!
RT: It was all over the place. I think that growing up in the 80s made me more fearless where I didn’t have to be this kind of a writer and I’m a rock guy. Like, if in my whole career I had stayed 90s alt-rock like our first Matchbox 20 record, it would have been very limiting in all of the stuff that I could do later on.
AM: When I first heard Smooth, like many, I was blown away by so many things in the song and in the video! How was it for you to navigate the concept that you would be able to do both as a solo artist and then popping back in with your band?
RT: I mean, it took awhile! Looking back, Smooth happened between our 1st and 2nd record. Then we made 2 more records until I went solo. So it was 10 years into the Matchbox career before I made my 1st solo record! So it took me awhile even after Smooth! The thing about Smooth was that it opened the doors as a writer. So even when I was with Matchbox 20, I was doing a lot of outside writing for other things with Carlos, Seal, Marc Anthony, Willie Nelson, and Mick Jagger. I was getting a chance to be an anonymous writer for these other voices which was very very cool and then with Matchbox – we went from record to record to record and then on tour for like 10 years straight, so whenever we took that break, then it made sense and we all went out and made solo records.
AM: We were bummed that we were unable to catch your show at the Seaport earlier this month All Night Days is dropping Sep 5th and you’re currently on tour promoting the album. Why did you want to create this album and what can you tell us about it? We listened to Thrill Me which we really love and I enjoyed Hard to Be Happy and it has a fun video.
RT: Thank you! Thrill Me is my favorite. I think that there is almost an OCD to writing in that – like I said, I am writing all of the time. So if I don’t get some of these songs out, it’s a clutter in my head and I feel like there is no room for more material and other things. We were coming up on my 20th anniversary of my first solo record and I couldn’t think of a better way to commemorate it then to just let people know that I was still writing!
AM: I love that!
Since you’re on tour, you have the US portion and then you’re in Australia and New Zealand with a number of dates that takes place this Fall so you have quite an interesting schedule. How do you prepare for such a schedule, the performances, all the different cities, are there workouts that you like to do or must do’s before you hit the stage or after?
RT: Yeah, I mean, I think that I was much more careless about my body and my health when I was much younger. As you get older, you don’t want to look like you’re trying too hard right?
AM: Facts!
RT: You’re limited with your options out here. So I started with – there’s a Beach Body on Demand (Editor’s Note: aka BODi) that has a series of workouts like Insanity, P90X, Shift Shop and all of these things. Those are kind of great because a lot of those are bodyweight, calisthenics, so I don’t have an excuse. If I’m on the bus that day, I can do them on the bus. I can do a full hour long crushing workout! Sometimes they’re harder then just going to the gym with weights.
You know, I get a bonus workout every night. It’s 2 hours of just screaming and running back and forth you know? We love, the whole band – jokes about how we like a good hot night in the Summer! You feel like it’s part of the weight loss plan. It’s great to go out there and sweat off what we had for dinner.
I don’t do after show food. It used to be a big thing you know. After the show everybody orders some food because you’re really hungry and you’ve burned off a lot of that energy, but when I’m on the road, I find that I am probably on an 18 hour fast because I eat around 5:30pm and I don’t eat again until after I wake up and work out the next day. Keeping that, green juices, keeping vitamins – I think it’s your basic upkeep! I don’t think that you have to become obsessive about things, but I think that if you’re mindful, then you wind up – I have a different relationship with food. I have a different relationship with alcohol than I used to – well maybe only slightly!
AM: That’s fair!
RT: Well, every little bit helps!
AM: Your son is also on tour with you as your lead guitarist! What has that been like to have Maison with you?
RT: Well it’s great! He graduated from Berklee as well.
AM: Nice!
RT: Yeah. He went to Berklee and he has a band called The Lucky and they met there and as soon as they graduated, they all moved out to LA.
My guitar player from my solo band, he had just retired from live music. He’s been producing and writing for other people and killing it. It was his idea and he has been watching Maison on IG and sharing his shred videos and so I reached out and asked him if he wanted to do it. It has been the time of our lives! He fits right in although he brings the median age to the band down significantly! Having that energy has been really great. He’s known this band from when it was formed when he was 7. So when he was a little kid, he was on stage goofing with Al and Abe, my rhythm section. Now to see him as an active and integral section of the band, I have to stop sometimes because I almost forget that I’m performing because I will just stop and watch him.
AM: What do you want your legacy to be known as. You’ve had over 40M+ albums sold with the band, you have your 18M+ album sales with your solo career – what do you want people to feel about Rob Thomas?
RT: I mean, I don’t care! I think that I want the songs that I have written that have meant something to people – for them to carry on. If they ever forgot who wrote them, I don’t think that I would care. I like that those little pieces of music exist out there in the world and that they are out there for somebody if they want to use them for good times or for bad. It’s so selfish what I get to do – you know what I mean?
AM: Of course!
RT: I get to make a living doing the thing that I love. Most people, you spend most of your time working. Most people don’t get the ability to spend that time doing something that they really really enjoy. So it is a gift that is never lost on me. I get to do it and it is a sense of catharsis and therapy to write and be able to share it with people – like minded people. People seeing that you feel that way too and that they are not freaks! So, I think that just in general, I want the songs to kind of remain.
AM: Are there any upcoming projects that you would like to share that we can tell our community about?
RT: I’m in it right now! This is it right now! For me, every night we have to pretend that it is our first show!
AM: Right!
RT: For some people, it is the only one that they are going to come to. We don’t think too much farther then, we’re going to crush it tomorrow. That’s our mantra, “let’s just crush is tomorrow.”
IG @robthomas
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 16 - 23 + 32 - 37 Ashley Haer | PG 25 - 27 Andrew Angel | PG 28 - 31 Randall Slavin |
Read the AUG ISSUE #116 of Athleisure Mag and see SONGS TO LIVE BY | Rob Thomas in mag.
