At 12, Matchbox 20’s lead singer and songwriter, Rob Thomas, didn’t appear to be heading for singing stardom. First he didn’t get cast in his school’s production of the musical “Guys and Dolls.” Then he joined chorus and flunked it. But he didn’t let his rotten beginning keep him becoming the lead singer in a band when he got to high school.
“I would sing these really, really bad original tunes,” Rob laughs. “I thought I was a rock star.”
As Matchbox 20’s debut album, “Yourself or Someone Like You,” climbs the charts, Rob’s rocky beginning is fading like a bad dream. Times are changing for the 25-year-old, who spent his high school years as a drifter when things got tough at home.
“When I was 12, my mom got cancer and I spent a lot of time taking care of her,” Rob says. “I had been through a lot of circumstances that allowed me to build up character, and I wanted to see what I could do with it.”
His mom recovered, but his life was still tough. Hitchhiking between his home state of Florida and South Carolina, Rob spent many nights hanging out on the side of the highway writing songs. Though he says it was kind of cool having so much independence, it was also a bummer.
“I thought it would be great to have a Little League family and a mom who came to school functions like my friends’ families did,” he says. “At the same time, I’m glad for the character that built up from living a different kind of life.”
How did his wandering years affect him? “I have a lot of patience for people, and myself, which I don’t think I would have if I had taken the normal path,” Rob says. He also takes those past experiences and turns them into songs, which, he points out, always deal with people and relationships.
“That’s what moves me enough to write,” he explains. “One day I’ll be hanging out relaxing, and all this stuff that I’ve soaked up hits me and I’ll start writing.”
With the popular hit “Push” getting lots of radio time and an album full of catchy rock tunes, Rob’s bad-dream beginning is turning into a good dream come true. He says of Matchbox 20’s success: “It feels like being in high school on summer vacation.”
