DJ: Very nice so we welcome to the afternoon program, the lead singer and songwriter, newly wed, rockstar, the man from matchbox twenty, Rob Thomas. So how's it goin' man?
Rob: How's it goin' brother? ?
DJ: Hey everything's good. So I hear you were singing along to Macy Gray before we started?
Rob: I was man, I love that record?
DJ: Is there something now in your personal collection that you listen to non-stop? ?
Rob: It's funny, you know, Macy Gray and David Gray are the two things I've been listening to over and over and over. ?
DJ: So, of everything that's going on in your life right now, I mean come on. It's gotta be good to wake up in the morning. ?
Rob: You know, there's a lot of crazy stuff goin' on every morning. It's like every day the X factor keeps me goin'. It's like you never know what's gonna happen. ?
DJ: What's the best part? ?
Rob: Um, I dunno. I think my marriage is the best part of everything, 'cause that's real life, and then everything after that is great. It's been a good ride. ?
DJ: Was that day, was your wedding day like the total best day of your life? ?
Rob: Yeah, man. You know, like that's a big thing. It's like you see a million weddings but then when you have yours it still takes your breath away. ?
DJ: Every woman we've talked to so far has said something about the pictures in In Style Magazine. How is that from your vantage point? ?
Rob: Aw, I dunno. ?
DJ: Is it freaky to see that stuff there? ?
Rob: It was pretty cool, 'cause I mean we used our own pictures and video instead of having people there, so it was like our wedding day was still, you know was unintrusive and we still had our own private time, and we got to share it with people without having to give up anything and it was nice. ?
DJ: Now that you guys have reached this level of success, do you find that it's harder to find that kind of private time? ?
Rob: Um, you know you just, it's weird the things you can get used to. I mean we travel around a lot and she's with me all the time, so you know when the bus rolls on after a town we just have our private time. We'll go hide away and just sit and talk in the bunk or if we have a day off we'll just try and make use of it. ?
DJ: So let's give some of the stats from the last album, and this is unbelievable. And I can't believe I sound like a sportscaster right now but…?
Rob: You know I was just thinkin' that. You know we've had a good season this year Bob. We're goin' all the way. ?
DJ: ::laughs:: At least four hit songs, ten million copies sold in the US, over 600 shows, I mean we've seen some things, some sales figures from Australia and New Zealand and everything else, but with the new CD Mad Season, are you ready to do it all over again? ?
Rob: Yeah man I've been so tired of just sitting around in my house, I am so ready to play. ?
DJ: We've previewed songs from the CD all weekend long and I've gotta tell ya I think the ride should be similar from this end because songs like "Angry" and "Black and White (People)" and "Last Beautiful Girl," I mean this is great stuff. ?
Rob: Thank you. I mean dude it's 'cause of you guys 'cause you guys play it and you guys have been helpin' us out all the way. ?
DJ: Let's start on the outside of the CD and work our way inside. Okay, who is that guy on the front? ?
Rob: It was just a picture from an artist that Paul found, our drummer Paul found. It was just a painting, and he went and he actually worked with the record company with all of the packaging and went through every little piece of it and got everything together and put it in the little book form. ?
DJ: Right. We've gotten some emails and some questions at our website PLJ.com and Emily…?
Rob: What do the kids wanna know? ?
DJ: I'll tell you what they wanna know.
Rob: Well what does Emily wanna know?
DJ: What's the signifigance of that peacock? There's the peacock on the front, there's a peacock on some promo pictures, is there anything to do with that? (Note: I, Alix, asked that question! I called in the radio station and asked that question and somehow the stupid DJ thought my name was Emily! Well just so you know I did call back the station and had a few words with that DJ, lol)
Rob: No, nothin' at all. There was a peacock in the picture and we liked it, so we decided to have peacocks in the picture but I think that's gonna be the end of it, probably.
DJ: You've gotta admit on the internet there's some pretty hardcore fans and some pretty huge sites and people who are totally totally into what you do and they've been that way since even before matchbox twenty began.
Rob: Yeah, we've got the greatest fans ever. You just come to our shows and you see 'em and they're… it's just a lovefest.
DJ: So, what percentage of this CD is totally new and how many of these songs have you been livin' with for a while now?
Rob: Um, as far as.. some of these songs I started, "Black and White People" and "Rest Stop" were written like 8, 9 years ago maybe. And then some of them were written in the stuio while we were making Yourself or Someone Like You, and some of 'em on the road, and it's almost like I have more time to make this record than I did to make the first record, 'cause the first record, we had just left another band, me and Paul and Brian, and we wanted to start out things fresh so, with the exception of "3am", all new songs were written like 8 months before we went in to make that record. So I had so much more time to make this record it was like the opposite of the usual how things work 'cause my first batch of like 20 or 30 songs I wrote I had my whole life to write and the ones I put everything into when I was a kid are sittin' in a notebook somewhere and I'll prolly never do 'em with anybody because that's what I did with that band.
DJ: What is the process, and it can't be the same thing for every song, but is there something typical? The napkins or the email left on the voice mail message make it into the studio and you write around that or is it always the piano part come first or the lyrics come first, or what is that?
Rob: No, it's usually both, I mean sometimes it just starts walkin' around the city and just, y ou start hummin' a song to yourself and it doesn't exist yet and you're just like 'Hey, wow', see and that's pretty cool and you just start writing around that.
DJ: Do you have a favorite song on this project?
Rob: I think the one that I'm closest to on there is the last song called "You Won't Be Mine", just 'cause it's a bit of an epic slow thing that I did, and it has to be my favorite song I've ever written, you know it just keeps me in the right direction and I like the way it's goin'.
DJ: That song, and I'm sure you probably hate to hear this, but it sounds like it's straight off a Bond movie.
Rob: No man I don't mind that at all, I think that's great. I think that Matt Serletic is a great producer, arrange this 72 piece string orchestra around the melody and it sounds like a John Williams orchestra.
DJ: That's great, and the little hidden track? That little nugget there at the very very end?
Rob: Yeah, yeah that's just the string part, 'cause we would do it, and after we did it we used to listen to it. We would take out everything else and just listen to the string parts, and we thought it was such a beautiful part that Matt arranged that we thought we should just put it in there when the record was over as a little reprise.
DJ: Very cool. It's 95.5 PLJ we're talkin' to Rob Thomas from matchbox twenty, and I'd like to play a song from the CD and give you a chance to grap a sip of water and shake some hands and then talk to you some more if that's cool with you.
Rob: That sounds cool to me.
DJ: Could you tell us about the song "If You're Gone?"
Rob: "If You're Gone" was written a few months, actually like, last summer I guess around maybe, I uh, it was pretty self explanatory. It was written about my wife but it was like at this time when we had first met and it was our first argument over a bunch of different miles and it was just this pit in your stomach that starts to grow wondering whether this was gonna be it or not.
::Plays song::
DJ: Hey we're back and I’m talking with Rob Thomas, and I'm tellin' you brother, we are so excited about this new CD. I can imagine you have to be completely the same.
Rob: Man I really am, we're having such a good time. It's good to be playing agan. We've been doing a club tour that's a lot of fun.
DJ: On the club tour now, are you pullin' out all the stops that you've done on the road. Are you pullin' out some quirky 80's songs or are you just woodsheddin' on the new stuff?
Rob: You know a little of both. There's no tellin' what you're gonna pull out. We've been having fun with The Who cover for a while now.
DJ: And what is your prefrence? When it comes to playing a small club with 900 people or taking an outdoor shed where you can squeeze in 23000 people a night, which do you like best?
Rob: I dunno, I think they both have their own charm, you know. I like doin' this just because you build up the real energy that just stays in the room, you know, it's kind of like a moment that you share with just you, and it gets to be a lot more fun and energetic. But then there's somethin' else about puttin' on the big rock show, like throwin' out all the lights and puttin' up the big screens and you know 20,000 people screaming at you and it's pretty fun.
DJ: Yeah, I can imagine that's gotta be cool. Christine called us earlier with this question that I think you've heard, but let's just ask it again, Christine?
Christine: I have a very good question for Rob Thomas. I want to know what it was like working with Santana.
Rob: Working with Santana… Santana Santana… oh Carlos Santana!
DJ: ::laughs:: Yeah
Rob: That was one of the coolest things ever. It was cool before everything started with the album before Supernatural blew up the way it did and it was cool hanging out with Carlos in San Francisco and just bein' in the studio and just jammin' out and speaking some words of wisdom and after that everything else was just gravy. We got to go and play some shows with him and make a video and do some TV shows and get some more words of wisdom and hang out and play shows and it was a great summer.
DJ: Certainly the video shot and the performance at the Grammies were the first time people had seen you in a while and man you've withered away! What's goin' on?
Rob: ::laughs::
DJ: Are you workin' out or are you doin' some special diet thing?
Rob: Um, no I just stopped being a drunkard and that helped things a lot I think, and um, taking care of myself and eating right, and did I mention not being a drunkard?
DJ: ::laughs:: Did winning the numerous awards, the Grammies the VMI Pop awards, did those help build confidence as a writer or have you not written anything since those have come your way?
Rob: I mean I still write I mean I write as a hobby, I do this and things have gone so well because that's what I did to start with and I got really fortunate and people got to hear it, so I feel like I know I don't write for records and I don’t write for anything, and I've just got these songs that just may never get heard and they're just sitting around in notebooks because I do it for the fun of it.
DJ: Well credit to you. You do what you love and you love what you do and it all works out right there.
Rob: You know tomorrow night we're playing Letterman at 6pm, but we're doing it in the street. So anybody can come down to 53rd street by the theater and we're gonna play a song for the night and we're gonna play a few other songs for the website, like a live webcast with CBS, so anyone who wants to come down to 53rd street tomorrow around 6pm and check it out. Heh, I just sounded like a big idiot. Do you ever do that? Just sometimes you don't know what to say so you just take the idiot route out and say "Just uuh, check it out"
DJ: Just about every day that happens with me
Rob: ::laughs::
DJ: Did you used to live in the city?
Rob: Yeah, me and my wife lived here for almost two years we were livin' down in SoHo for a while.
DJ: Yeah and you've moved out?
Rob: Yeah we just moved, you know, like a half an hour up. Just to uh, it's a little quieter up there, I like it.
DJ: And when you come in where do you hang out?
Rob: I havn't been at home for a while now I wouldn't know where to go if I went home and hung out. I think I'd try to hang out in my hotel room, try and take a nap.
DJ: I have a feeling people are gonna find you. You'll just be walkin' down broadway and people are gonna find you. I've got a feeling that's the way it'll be for a long time.
Rob: Chances are I'll be anywhere below 14th Street, I'll be easy to find.
DJ: Well I know you're hangin' out there at our top secret location for our first listen party and best of luck on the new CD, but I don't think luck is gonna have anything to do with it brother.
Rob: Man I really appretiate it and thank you guys for all your help.
DJ: Continued success Rob. Have a great day man.