Episode Transcript
Well, I've got to tell you, for quite a while,
I've been excited about an opportunity to talk to one
of my favorite artists, our friend Rob Thomas, hanging out
on the studio line with us this morning. Rob, how
are you hey?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How are you doing? Duayne get to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Man, oh Man, looking forward to it. Listen, you are
hitting the road this summer and this is your first
solo headlining tour since twenty nineteen. Let's talk about the
All Night Days Tour, Rob.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, man, I'm really excited.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
So twenty twenty was supposed to be, you know, after
my twenty nineteen Tip Tooth Smile tour, Matchbox twenty was
going to go out on a tour, and then I
was going to be working what is now this record,
you know, in probably twenty twenty two, and then the
world had a bunch of other plans and then you know,
during that time, Matchbox decided to make another record. So
I just kept kind of putting this record off.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You know, the All Night Days record.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I just kept kind of like putting it off, and
then I took some of these songs and they wound
up on the last Matchbox record, and some of the
songs that we were working on there wound up on
this record. So it's been a process that's been going
on for.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Like five years.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And speaking of Matchbox, now you're you're doing work on
your own, but you're so still doing work with the band.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well yeah, like you know, this year is the twentieth
anniversary of the first solo record that I did.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
That's hard for me to imagine. It's been twenty years
since all I asked, where's the time?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, yeah, I know, yes, unbelievable. Like you know, I
never I never thought.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
That, Like I remember it being twenty years with Matchbox,
but never thought that I would be thirty with Matchbox,
you know.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
And it's and that's and twenty felt like a year ago. Now.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Speaking of the tour, it's going to roll into Texas
and there are a couple of big dates. The one
we're really excited about, the one that's closest to OZ.
You're going to be at the pavilion at Toyota Music
Factory right of the road in Irving and the Dallas
Fort Worth area August twenty ninth, and then the following
day you've got a show at Smart Financial Center at
Sugarland down in the Houston area. So tell us a
(01:43):
little bit about what to expect from the set list
and these shows.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Rob, Well, you know, it's still thirty years of music, right,
so there's a little bit of matchboxes in there. Some
of the songs that I wrote, you know, that are really.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Special to me.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But then there's twenty years of this of this last
you know, uh solo song, they're like the old friends
that I haven't got to see in a while that
I'm really excited. But my band has been the same
band basically for the last twenty years as well, So
my solo band they're the same cat that we get
back together every year, you know that we go out
and we do it. The only difference is this year my.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Son is going to be the guitar player.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
No ban Wow, how about that? Awesome?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I can't tell you how many songs that you've released
with the band and on your own that I love.
Three AM and Unwell, and of course everybody loves the
Santana collaboration Smooth and I know you probably get tired
of hearing about that song. That is the one that
people tend to gravitate. Two is the collaboration with Santana.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, I mean, you know, as an artist, I've always
been someone who my songs are way way more famous
than I am as a person, Like I could be
having dinner with somebody all night long and then finding
out that No. Three of my songs they just have
no idea who I am, right right. But that song,
you know, twenty seven, twenty eight years ago, was like
the first song that where I stopped being the guy
(02:58):
in the band and people are like, oh, that's Rob Thomas.
He's a songwriter, you know. And it started this beautiful
friendship that Carlos and I have to this day. It
started the relationship with.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Me and Clive Davis, and it was a really big.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Milestone, not just in my profession but also.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
In my personal life.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, I mean that really kind of moved things along
for you. Yeah, you did become a household name after that.
I can still remember when that song came out. Now,
speaking of you yourself, you continue really to evolve as
a songwriter, performer, eighty million records, soul globally. I'm just
looking at some of these things here. You really kind
of remain a defining voice in pop rock. You really
(03:35):
have all of these decades.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Well, I mean, you know, I don't think it's good
to have a job, you know what I mean, Like,
I think it's it's an amazing thing. Like when you're
young and you think about success and whatever that might mean,
you don't think about impractical terms, right, and so you
realize when you get older, if you're lucky enough to
do this, like what a joy it is to be
able to be someone's nostalgia, you know, Like it's a
great thing to have a new record out, and it's
(03:57):
so great that you know that to meet music that
I'm still about and I know my fans are going
to be excited to hear. But it's also really good
to know that, Like the last thirty years have been
people's weddings and people's funerals and.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
People's proms and parties. You know, it's I think that's
that's been a gift to be able to be in
people's homes like.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
That, right, you know, when you kind of become ingrained
in a part of the culture. I mean, you really
do your songs are that timeless?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, I mean I've been you know, afforded that because
people like you play them, and people like our fans,
they continue to listen to them and then also allow
me to try different things, you know, not just with
matchboxing in my solo world. You know, the stuff that
I'm doing now doesn't sound like three AM, but everybody
is still you know, still lets me do it. So
that's a gift to it.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, and it's said to that incredible voice and talent
that really shines through.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
We talk a lot about your performing and all the
hits that you've had, but you were also a celebrated songwriter,
Songwriters Hall of Fame, you got the how David Starlight Award,
all the other honors. Tell us a little bit about
those and what that's meant to you.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I mean, I think at the end of the day
is songwriting is the most important thing to me, Like
I to choose one thing to do that creating, you know,
a song because it's cathartic for me. You know, it
helps me work through things that are in my life
and it connects me with other people because if I
write about something I'm going.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Through, you know, you don't have to know what I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Going through, but I write about how it makes me feel.
And you've got something in your life that makes you
feel that way, and then we it connects us. And
I think in that way music and songs connect us,
you know, more than more than anything, and it makes
you kind of changes your molecules.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
It can make you happy or sad or makes your
remember something.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So I think, you know the idea of being gifted
with the power to like hear a song that doesn't
exist yet and then be able to put that down
onto a paper and watch it come to fruition, that's
been the greatest gift of the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Well, you know what, it gives you an opportunity to
kind of be creative, that exercise that creative part of
your brain. I completely understand that.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, if I'm not writing my life, you know, is
like you need to go start writing because I start
to become cranky.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know, like if I if I haven't done something.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
In a while, She's.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Like, Okay, you need to start.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
You need to find a project now.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, you have to have that way to express yourself.
I completely understand that. Even with what I do for
a living, you just got to have that sure, that
creative outlet that's there, and you have done so well
with that. I mean, I'm just in awe of this
list of accomplishments that you've had so Rob, we are
really really looking forward to the tour. I know, in
(06:22):
addition to the songwriting and the touring and all that,
what does it look like for Rob Thomas over the
years to come? You're going to keep doing this? Have
you got some other things you want to get into?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I mean it's a little bit of everything. Like you know,
we're planning out Matsbucks twenty into twenty twenty eight right now.
Like I'm already kind of figuring out what we want
to do and how to change it up and do
something different than we've done over the last thirty years,
not just musically, but in our performances and how we
present everything.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
During that time, I'm also working with Greg Walhattenberg, who
produced my new record, and we're working on some stuff
possibly for Broadway. You know, I think anything, I don't
want to change what I do. You know, I want
I'm a songwriter and I want to be a songwriter.
But there's still so many different avenues to explore just
doing that, and I'm going to try and find.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Some of them.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
The All Night Days tour again, that's coming here to
the pavilion at Toyota Music Factory right up the road Dallas,
Fort Worth and irving there on August twenty ninth. Then
in Houston down at Sugarland a night later.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Rob.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
We really appreciate your time. Rob Thomas hanging out with
us on the line this morning. All the best to you,
my friend Dwayne.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Thank you, my friend. I'll see you in technic
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