Matchbox 20 would be one of several bands that came from Florida during the mid to late
90’s and dominated rock radio and MTV. Their debut album was a massive success moving in
excess of 12 million copies just in America. Despite being commercially successful critics
blasted the band as being too bland and faceless, while hipsters called them ‘uncool.’ It
was something not lost on the band with frontman Rob Thomas telling billboard ‘our saving
grace has been that we’re not hip. There are a lot of bands and the best thing about
them is they’re them. It’s never been hip to be us. Today let’s a take a look
at whatever happened to the band.
Long before Matchbox 20 hit it bim frontman Rob Thomas thought he’d someday be a big
star. One of my favorite stories profiling the band came from Spin magazine who wrote
during their profile on the group in 1999 “only a few years ago when their record
sales were a lot closer to 12,000 instead of 12 million and whose popularity didn’t
extend much outside their homebase of Orlando matchbox 20 wanted more than anything to be
flashy conventional rockstars. They’d even show up to early morning flights in glitzky
stage outfits, dark sunglasses and long furry coats. When custom officials asked them to
cite their occupations singer Rob Thomas would always state Rockstar. If they looked at him
skeptically he would airly assure them ‘trust me,im huge trust me.’
Born on a US army base in Germany to a seargant father and alcoholic mother Matchbox 20’s
frontman Rob Thomas had a rough childhood. By the time he was a toddler his parents had
divorced, his mom had would take his older sister to live in Columbia, South Carolina,
and Thomas would be shuttled off to rural south carolina to hang out with his grandma
who was also an alcoholic. His grandmother ran a general store.where she also sold pot
and moonshine under the counter. Then there’s his Aunt Monkey who famously in 1975 hired
serial killer Pee Wee Gaskins, to kill her ex-boyfriend. She would go to prison for 30
years and soon started a relationship with Gaskins.
By the time he was 10 years old THomas would move with his sister and mother to a trailer
park in Orlando. His mom kept some rough company partying and hanging out with bikers who would
sometimes beat her up. Parties were a common site at Thomas home and a young Rob would
sometimes play bartender. It wasn’t uncommon for him to wake up the next morning and be
surroundedby 10 or more bodiest. His older sister Melissa would end up running away from
home at the age of 17 and it was around this time his mother was diagnosed with cancer
but continued to drink and smoke. The doctors gave Thomas mother six months to live with
him telling the LA Times ‘That aged me quickly.’ But his mother beat the odds pulling through
her cancer ordeal. Amongst all the chaos in his family life,
Rob found music at a younge age getting his first instrument at the age of 10 which was
a casio keyboard. . His early years in South Carolina would convince him that he wanted
to be a song writer taking cues from the old country greats before getting into Billy Joel,
Elton John, The Cure and Elvis Costello. He would recall to Rolling Stone how he was a
nerd in school and soon started writing his own music in hopes of becoming one of the
cool kids saying “At parties, all the foot­ball players would be drunk and passed out, and
I’d be in the living room with all their girlfriends around me, playing the piano,
every song like a bad version of a Li­onel Richie solo album.”
It was in high school Thomas would end up playing in a few cover bands one of which
named Fair Warning. But by the time he got to his senior year Thomas quit school after
Fair Warning got a residency performing at a local sheraton hotel. But the band blew
the opportunity after several of it’s members were caught stealing food an drinks from the
hotel. What followed was Thomas leaving home at the age of 17 and spending the next 3 years
living homeless roaming the area between South Carolina and Florida spending his days crashing
at friends houses and on park benches while finessing his musical skills on guitar and
piano. He would also take up odd jobs including working
at a biker bar where he became known as the singing busboy. Despite his difficult set
of circumstances those years on the streets gave Thomas some wisdom with him telling the
LA Times “There were times when it seemed rough,” “but all these kids at school
were like drunk jerks, date rapers and freaks with [beer] keggers. . . . Maybe if [I hadn’t
been homeless], I wouldn’t have started thinking clearly until I was out of college.
In my head, I was older . . . older than everybody my age.”
Despite thinking he was wiser than his peers Thomas did do a lot of stupid things. He ended
up serving two months in jail and at one point took so much acid he severly burned his hands
on dry ice to the point that the doctors thought they may have to amputate his hands. He would
recall how he turned to his sister after getting the news in the hospital telling the LA Times
“Missy,” “how am I going to get these songs in my head out if I can’t play them?”
Recalls Melissa, “I was worried about him having no hands, and all he was wor­ried
about was the music.” By the early 90’s Thomas would eventually
move back to Florida where he met several other like mindedmusicians including bassist
Brian Yale and Drummer Paul Doucette who played. Enlisting a few other local musicians they
would form the band Tabitha’s Secret,. But shortly after forming Doucette quit the band
and head back home to Pittsburgh to work at a car dealership. It was during a trip back
down to Florida to retrieve his belongings that Doucette who was driving at 75mph almost
struck a racoon but avoided it, but it resulted in him rolling his vehicle. While he would
be ok it was while he waited for his car to be fixed he learned his replacement in tabitha’s
secret had quit and so he offered ot fill in for a few shows before deciding to stay.
The band soon hit the club circuit around florida and their sets at this point in timeconsisted
of the future matchbox 20 hit song 3AM. Doucette, Thomas and Yale would end up leaving Tabitha’s
secret and started a new band called Matchbox 20 while recruiting guitarists Adam Gaynor
and Kyle Cook.. Doucette would explain to MTV how the band came up with their name recalling
A guy walked into the place I was working and I wish I knew who this guy was, because
I have no clue," He had a big number twenty on a softball shirt... a bunch of patches
all over it, and the only word that I saw from the patches was the word 'matchbox,'
and I was like 'Matchbox 20.' At the time I wanted to start
a clothing company. I was like 'Matchbox 20 clothing company' but then I said the name
of the band. Initially Rob Thomas hated the name but a
month later they ended up using the name. The band soon caught the attention of producer
Matt Serletic who had a deal with Atlantic Records subsidiary Lava Records. He had previously
worked with another Florida Band collective soul & He would introduce the band to Atlantic
Records who signed the group under Lava Records. The group’s first album Yourself or Someone
Like You would be inspired by Thomas failed relationships and his terrible childhood.
3AM dealt with his tumultuous relationship with his mother, while Push dealt with one
of his troubled relationships while Real World comes to terms with one’s limitations.
Released in 1996. Yourself or Someone Like You came out the same week that the band’s
label Lava Records closed its doors. The band started to worry that they maybe dropped and
started to think about their futures, but Atlantic records noticed something strange.
The group’s album sales had spiked in birmingham alabama. The spike in sales was attributed
to a local alternative station WRAX who started playing the song Push. The band was soon absorbed
by Atlantic records and the label issued push as a single and shot a video for MTV. Soon
enough the song became a top 5 hit and three more singles followed including Real World,
and 3AM both of which were top 10 hits and Back to good which was a top 25 hit.
The single that made Matchbox 20 a household name would be the song “Push,”. The song’s
lyrics about a troubled relationship came during Thomas first trip to New York City
and soon drew criticism from feminist groups with one group in New Hampshire calling for
radio stations to stop playing the song. Thomas pushed back against these assertions. Nice
pun right? The song isn’t a call for physical violence but rather an observations of the
emotional battles a relationship goes through and saw Thomas claim the song was inspired
by a relationship in which he was the one who was mistreated.
Thomas would recall to the LA Times watching MTV News one day and seeing an ex-girlfriend
of his being interviewed claiming to be the inspiration behind the song Push and threatening
to sue Matchbox 20 for unpaid royalties. Luckily for him, she wasn’t serious and no lawsuit
would be filed. In reality the song was about a different
high school girlfriend who broke up with Thomas by donating his possessions to Goodwill telling
the LA Times “I had no clothes, nothing. All the local bands got together and gave
me their band T-shirts. For months, that’s all I wore.”
The success of the band’s first album would result in them being all over MTV and rock
radio but the Matchbox 20 still had an identity problem. Despite people magazine naming Rob
Thomas one of it’s 50 most beautiful people of 1998 MTV sent a camera crew to one of the
band’s shows and asked attendees to simply name one of the band members and many people
could not answer the question. How did the band feel about this? Well, Thomas saw it
as a vindication that the band’s music was more important than their image, while other
members couldn’t believe it as they appeared in all their own music videos. Thomas would
tell Rolling Stone in 2009 “My songs are more famous than I am, and I’m OK with that.”
The band’s success soon saw them lumped in with the likes of the counting crows and
hootie and the blowfish with the LA Times writing on their profile of the band “Matchbox
20, like the Crows and Hootie, has sold millions of records by approximating the sound of an
earlier era, which makes their music reassuring for listeners who moan about the loss of classic
songwriting values in rock, but who don’t seem to demand the challenge and individuality
that gave the best of that music its power.” Some of the critics weren’t kind to the
band. Their detractors referred to the band as corporate radio fluff. Even some of their
rock heroes were less than supprortive. Thomas would meet one of his idols Keith Richards
who had hoped that hte guitarist would compliment Matchbox 20’s music. Instead Thomas recalled
Richards saying “Oh, you’re the one with the wife.” referring to his wife a fashion
model. Then you had fellow musicians who came up during the same time who didn’t show
the band respect. In perhaps the most 90’s feud Third Eye
blind frontman Stephen Jenkins also slammed Thomas. Matchbox 20’s tour for their first
album saw Thomas gain 20 pounds. At one point Jenkins called Thomas fat to which thomas
responded in an interview with spin saying and I don’t care who knows it. [Stephan
Jenkins] made fun of me—called me a fat guy. Screw you! He has no soul whatsoever.
Thomas would tell Rolling STone how the success of the group’s first album took it’s toll
on him personally. I was the only person ever with a coke habit
to gain fifty pounds. We did an MTV Live From the 10 Spot, and that was the first time I’d
had good look at myself in a while. Not only was I heavy, but I had dark eyes, my face
was all puffy. That was pretty fucked up. I’d met my future wife at that point, and
she showed the tape to her mother. Her mother was like, “Why the fuck are you going out
with the guy? He’s ugly! Thomas would end up curtailing his habits and the band’s
first album would go on to sell 12 million copies, but it also came with one additional
headache. The man on the front cover of the band’s album sued them for not getting his
permission to put his likeness on the record. He would file his lawsuit nearly a decade
after the album came out but it appeared to go nowhere. That wasn’t the only legal scare
the band had as several of their former bandmates in Tabitha’s secret filed a lawsuit against
matchbox 20 over songwriting royalties. Second album
The writing sessions for the band’s second album proved to be difficult initially. Thomas
up until this point in the band’s history would write a majority of the songs and the
second album was no different. In fact, at some points song suggestions from his bandmates
namely paul doucette ended with screaming matches between both musicians.. At one point
Thomas would put up a sheet in the studio with song ideas for doucette’s solo record.
The band would eventually work through their problems and their second album Mad season
would be put out in 2000. The lead single Bent proved to be a huge hit and It was the
same year the band changed their name from Matchbox 20 to matchbox twenty citing groups
like blink 182 as an example of there being too many bands
wit numbers in their name. The record label would team up with American Online in 1999
to create what billboard referred to as a band area where fans could listen to the new
album, watch videos of their songs, get information on their latest tour. The band members in
turn helped AOL with their new service called “you’ve got pictures’ by judging a digital
picture contest. Mad Season while successful would sell about
a ⅓ of the copies of it’s previous album, but the band and the label seemed to be pleased
with it’s 4x platinum performance. I also want to point out that mad season came out
in 2000 around the time napster was blowing up so internet piracy probably started hitting
album sales. Looking back at the band’s second record matchbox 20 seemed please wth
it’s performance with Thomas telling billboard ‘mad season did a lot better than we thought
it would considering we didn’t come out with an in your face record. It was a sleeper
hit. That was our head space at the time. Everyone is so quick to tell you it’s hard
to repeat the success. The band’s management was quick to point out that Mad Season outsold
it’s predecessor in territories outside the US including the UK and Japan. The album
would help establish the band as a bigger touring act as the group would sell out madison
square garden in just 15 minutes following the album’s release.
It was during the time the band was working on Mad Season Thomas would be involved in
one of the most successful songs of all time Song writer Itaal Shur had sent guitarist
Carlos Santana a demo for a song called Smooth. Santana felt the song needed more work so
his label Arista Records, sent the song to Rob Thomas who wrote the first verse and worked
with Shur to flush out the song. Thomas would temporarily put his vocals on the track while
Santana and the label found another vocalist someone like George Michael. But after hearing
Thomas vocal on the track Santana wanted him to sing on the song. The song was a massive
hit staying at the number 1 spot on the pop charts for 13 consecutive weeks in the summer
of 99 and won three grammys. "Smooth" is ranked as the third-most-successful song ever on
Billboard's Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs list. In 2000, the song won a Grammy Award
for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
Here’s Thomas talking about the first time he met Carlos Santana during one of his concerts.
(Rob Thomas Talks About Smooth) But the success of Thomas outside of Matchbox
20 left his bandmates in Matchbox 20 with mixed emotions. His bandmates would tell spin
magazine that they would never play smooth live with Doucette telling the publication
‘it was weird watching the grammys that the four of us weren’t up there too. Our
careers started together and he’s having a pinnacle of a career moment and he’s totally
doing it without us too. I was really torn, but God i was really f**** proud of my friend
Third Album It was following the success of Smooth and
of course Matchbox 20’s first two albums Thomas began fielding calls from other popular
musicians including Marc Anthony and Willie Nelson and one of the biggest rockstars on
the planet The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger. Jagger enlisted Thomas to help him write songs
for his 2001 solo album Goddess in the Doorway. The pair would write several songs including
Visions of Paradise which wound up on Jagger’s solo album, but it would be another track
named Disease which ended up on Matchbox 20’s third album More Than You Think You Are as
the lead single.
Thomas would tell songfacts
"I just knew that I was going to go into the studio with one of the greatest rock star/songwriters
of all time and didn't want to show up empty handed," "so I wrote the first verse and chorus
the night before. It felt so good that he liked it but I was really happy when he decided
'Visions of Paradise' was going to be on his solo album but that Matchbox should do 'Disease'
because he liked my voice on it."
The band’s third album would also see the group utilize common lyrical themes from their
past albums including abandonment, love and redemption, but at the same time explored
new sounds including psychedelic influences on You’re So Real and the more gospel influenced
Downfall. The band had seen trends come and go and their storied career proved they have
longevity with thomas telling the orlando sentinel "When we first came out, there was
all the stuff like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, a big, heavy grunge movement. We stayed under
the radar and kept going. Next, there was super pop with Britney and the Backstreet
Boys, then back to Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. We never attached ourselves to any movement."
To prevent himself from being influenced by what was popular on radio at the time Thomas
would tell billboard he didn’t listen to the radio during the writing of the group’s
third record recalling “this record was all about old elton john, tom petty, fleetwood
mac, billy joel. ‘this time it was all about getting the guitar sound that we grew up with
in the 70’s. The band at the same time had some pointed criticism at their old albums
with thomas telling the orlando sentinel "As we went back and listened to our other records,
sonically there was something missing for us. The quality of the guitars and drums didn't
sound organic to us. It's so processed."
The record also proved to be a more collaborative approach with Thomas getting more help from
his bandmates in the songwriting department with him tellin the orlando sentinel "There's
a lot more collaboration going on. Paul wrote a song called 'Could I Be You' and there's
two songs that Kyle, Paul and I wrote together. It's nice to be able to tap into that.
The album would see the band work once again with producer Matt Serletic who first discovered
the band. Thomas would tell billboard at the time “we wanted to get away from what we’d
done before. You’re going into the third record we’re either a certain sound or a
band that evolves. I hate having people compare us to bands we hate.” The band’s manager
Michael Lippman would add in the same interview “the third album is the most key album of
an artists career. Of course it used to be that artists weren’t even looked upon to
be commercially successful until their third record. The album is setting the stage for
where matchbox 20 is going to go as a band.
More Than You Think You Are to sell 2 million copies. The following year Matchbox 20 would
take a hiatus while it’s members focused on other musical projects.
It was during the band’s hiatus Thomas mother would pass away in 2006 on Despite having
repaired their relationship they still had difficult moments with Thomas telling Rolling
Stone she’d sometimes show up drunk to his concerts only for him to have her removed.
Their difficult relationship soon started to effect Thomas marriage. For a long time
Thomas kept pretty quiet on his mother and their relationship for fear of upsetting her.
Producer Matt Serletic would tell Rolling Stone
“He had a strange relation­ship with his mother,” says Matt Serletic, Thomas’ “He’d
run from her but also want her approval. She was half-crazy and very loving and yet very
vindic­tive. A lot of it had to do with his marriage. It’s one of those things that
was never quite ap­proved of.” And then when she died three years ago, he simply fell
apart. Thomas would add in the same interview what happened after his mother passed away
“I went on a nasty drink­ing binge and couldn’t stop,” Thomas says. “I was
mad she had left and I could no lon­ger be angry at her. And then I started to get this
feeling that right around the corner, some­thing horrible was waiting. After that, I completely
lost my coping skills…this feels like the most adult burden I’ve ever hail to carry,
and I think it’s necessary to talk about it, because it’s a huge part of who I am
and the reason I am the way I am.”
Last Album/Later Years In 2007 the band would reunite without Adam
Gaynor. Interesting fact if you guys didn’t know Gaynor would appear on the show millionaire
matchmaker in 2012. Following the reunion of the band they put out their first compilation
album Exile on Mainstream which consisted of a new EP of seven songs and 12 remastered
tracks. It would peak at number 3 on the billboard album charts selling over half a million copies
going gold.. The album’s lead single How Far We’ve Come peaked at number 11 on the
hot 100 charts It was following the tour to support the album Thomas put out his second
solo record Cradlesong while his bandmates worked on material for a new matchbox 20 album.
The band would put out their latest record in 2012 titled North. Which saw the team up
with Matt Sereletic the producer who helped the band nab a record deal early in their
career.. The band would write upwards of 50 songs and go on a $100,000 bender mostly spending
the money on expensive bottle of wines before they had even recorded any songs. The members
disagreed over which direction to take the band’s fourth record and It wasn’t until
old producer friend Matt Serletic checked in on the band’s progress that he was enlisted
to help produce teh record and get tings back on trackon track. T
The resulting record titled North would be the band’s first album to debut at the number
1 spot on the billboard album charts selling 95,000 copies in it’s first week and going
on to become certified gold. The next decade saw the band on the road with them announcing
in June of last year on social medai that they have begun work on a new album.