After being in the band Matchbox Twenty for ten years, he embarked on his own career, releasing a body of material written by himself. His debut album “…Something to Be” made it to number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, whilst the debut single from the album entitled “Lonely No More” made it to number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Building on his chart success, he appeared at the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, singing on his own, and also a duet of “Higher Ground” with Stevie Wonder. He made an appearance on the MTV Katrina Relief Concert, which aired on September 10th 2005. On his first solo tour entitled the Something to Be tour, he was joined by Jewel and Toby Lightman.
His single “Streetcorner Symphony” in fact came from featuring in promotion ads on the network, ABC of its Thursday night lineup. Thomas released the single “Little Wonders” which featured on the Disney film “Meet the Robinsons”. The single reached number 5 on the Mediabase Hot Adult Contemporary chart.
In 2007, Thomas returned to his band Matchbox Twenty to release a brand new album, “Exile on Mainstream”. From the album, they released the three singles “How Far We’ve Come”, “All Your Reasons” and “These Hard Times”.
“Her Diamonds” was the first release from his forth-coming sophomore album “Cradlesong”. He was fortunate enough to perform the track on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “Cradlesong” was ultimately released on June 30th 2009. It debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200.
Thomas was invited to be a guest performer on Daryl Hall’s concert series, “Live from Daryl’s House”, the pair performed the Matchbox Twenty hit singles “3 AM” and “Disease”, and then his solo songs “Someday” and “Ever the Same”. The rest of their set list consisted of the Hall and Oates hit singles “She’s Gone” Kiss on My List” and Marvin Gaye’s, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
Matchbox Twenty was a hugely successful 90s rock band and frontman Rob Thomas used that momentum to launch his successful solo career. But in all honesty, Matchbox Twenty was successful because of Thomas, and it wasn’t so much a solo career as an extension of what he was already doing. He had established himself so well by writing songs for the band, as well as for various other pop-stars like Tom Petty and, more recently, Taylor Hicks. The guy is so multi-talented, playing sold-out shows at huge venues to a crowd that absolutely goes mental when he sings.
I caught him at the Red Rocks Amphitheater’s summer performances, which is quite possible the most beautiful setting you could possibly ask for. The set-up for the show made them really small due to the massiveness of the stage, but the sound was perfect and I never had a moment where I couldn’t hear his distinctive voice. The added feature of having a live band really kicked his songs up a notch. He played an hour long set, in which “we’re going to cram as many songs as we possible can before they kick us off the stage,” resulting in the crowd going wild. Solid show from beginning to end!