The charges: they churn out bland, and faceless rock; theyll never make another hit record; they suck. The answer: seven million copies of Yourself Or Someone Like You in homes around the world. Matchbox 20 take on the critics.>>>
Let's call it one womens revenge. Another night in another hotel room, Matchbox 20 rhythm guitarist Adam Gaynor had settled into the familiar after-show routine of inviting a dizzy young thing back into his boudoir. "She had a great body, but no face and no head, which was really kind of annoying" Gaynor chuckles. "She slept over, we didn't fuck around, just rubbed each others backs - end of story. "Next morning, I wake up, take a shower, and when I'm coming out of the shower, she's on the phone, and she's like, "Adam, come and say hi to my friends,' So I grab the phone: 'Hey, what's up, man?' And the line is really bad, like it's a weird connection, or a cellphone. "And there's this guy on the other end saying shit like: 'So what's this I hear about your lead singer in Rolling Stone?' Then he starts asking me the nastiest fuckin' questions. It turns out that this girl had called her friend, who was like a DJ, and he had put me on the fuckin' air! So I'm like, 'Dude, this is no way to make friends.' and he's like 'Dude, you don't get on the air and start pissing off the DJ' Then he asks, 'Who am I speaking to again?' "My name is Timmy," Gaynor replied meekly, still on the air, "and I'm leaving now, so you have yourself a great day..." "That stoopid bitch," Gaynor snaps with a slight smile. "I'm very guarded about shit now. We all are."
The past 2 years have proved to be an incredible learning curve for Matchbox 20, a five piece from Orlando, Florida, whose debut album Yourself Or Someone Like You , tapped into the rock rituals of ordinary lives, and has since sold seven million copies world wide.
Long time friends, lead singer Rob Thomas and drummer Paul Doucette - the founders of the creative nucleus of Matchbox - recent overcame an alcoholic spiral which at one point, had them out drinking legendary boozers Pantera. Thomas and Doucette have also stood their ground against the usual charges; that they churn out bland rock and they can't possibly repeat their success. "At one point", Doucette says, "somebody, somewhere is going to have to say, 'You know, that band Matchbox 20 - they did it."
It is the afternoon of their first sell-out show at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. I meet Thomas and Doucette - and later Gaynor, lead guitarist Kyle Cook and bassist Brian Yale - at a hotel just south of the Sunset Strip. Doucette has checked in to the hotel as Tom Cruise; Thomas as Bill Paxton.
Doucette: I used to be Madonna or Suzi Quatro.
Thomas: I used to be Chuck Norris. Now I'm Bill Paxton. (Laughs) I don't
think that we've quite grasped it yet because we always use the names of
people who are more famous than we are.
This is a helluva hotel room. Life must be good.
Doucette: We're spoiled rotten.
Thomas: Yeah, but we're better behaved.
Doucette: Everything that goes on with big rock shows - throwing television sets out the window, hookers and rugs and all of that. This is like that "Calm Tour" for us. We've settled down. Stopped doing all that excessive stuff.
Thomas: Yeah, we're not the Rat Pack. And, we realised Dean Martin was the coolest Rat Pack because - you know what? - he never really drank. While all the guys were out partying he'd be in his room watching a movie or something. That's where I'm at.
Doucette: Definitely. We were starting to become more famous for our
drinking than our music.
What do you remember about your first gig as Matchbox 20?
Doucette: It was shit
Thomas: Yeah, it was really bad. We sucked. We didn't have anything figured
out, me and Paul had just come out of this other band that sucked even more.
I remember looking down from the stage and seeing my tow ex-girlfriends
beating each other up. Those were the days of big, high drama.
But did you realise you had songs that might stand up on the radio?
Thomas: No, I just remember the transitions, the way the songs changed and eventually came to be what they are. "Real World" was among those that came later on. "Busted" always sounded like a Green Day song to me, but the original version was a lot slower. The version you hear now came about by accident, Paul just trying something faster, and us just saying "Cool, let's keep that!"
Doucette: I don't remember the songs that much, just a lot of hard work, sitting in this tiny room, this rehearsal space for 14 hours a day just trying to make things work.
Thomas: Trying not to fight.
Doucette: Yeah, trying to get five personalities in one room for 2 months straight - plus I got really sick, too.
Thomas: ( Laughing) That's right. Paul had this patch over one eye, he was
bald and he had chicken pox.
What's the creative process like for you these days?
Thomas: For a little while there, I felt a little dry period going, and I
think it was because I was over thinking my songs. I wasn't happy that
people had started to pick my songs apart and, as we go into the second
record, they'll probably do it more. I'm living with that. I have to get
back to whatever it was that got me writing. Now, I'm just writing
everything down - for better or for worse - this is a song.
So your next batch of songs will be less revealing?
Thomas: No, I think I'll do the opposite. I think I've got to the point where I have to be as honest as I possibly can. Then I can say, "That's the best I could do, that's the most personal I could be, and if it's not what you want, then, sorry, I can't do nothing for you.
Doucette: We've become really thick skinned over these past two years. We can really take a lot. And, you know, it has a lot to do with the success of the record. I mean, we sold 7 million copies of our first record, and everybody's had a lot to say about that.
Thomas: Most of the press you read now is: "Why are they so successful? Why is it doing so well?" It's not about the music anymore.
Doucette: And before, every step of the way, most people were saying, "This record isn't going to go anywhere." Then someone actually called us a two-hit wonder! Now it's turned into, "Well, they sold 7 million albums, the tour is doing really well, but the question is can they do it again?"
Thomas: Yeah, but we didn't get into this for the critics. That does not
drive me to write my songs. We are not speaking for a generation, we are not
speaking for our hometown, and some of our songs don't even mean anything -
some of them are just words. My defence for the critics is: " We are John
Fogerty's favourite record. Bernie Taupin likes us. These people write
music, so we must be doing something right to a degree."
What kind of criticism really hurts?
Doucette: Personal attacks.
Thomas: (US) Rolling Stone published a picture of me from England, and said I was fat and gaining weight, and just started picking on me.
Doucette: If you're a music critic, go ahead, criticise our music all you like. You have every reason not to like us, but personal attacks - what's that?
Thomas: It makes you a gossip columnist
Are you millionaires?
Thomas: (long pause, looks carefully at Doucette) Um... I am.
Doucette: I'm not... but I'm getting close. Actually, the whole band is
getting close. There's money we've made that we won't see for a while, but
yeah, after that, I suppose I'll be there.
Is it true you spent a period of you teenage years homeless?
Thomas: Yes, but it wasn't something that I wanted to harp on. The record
company and publicist would love me to push the homeless angle, but it was
something that happened to me between the ages of 17 to 21, and it was self
induced. I didn't want to talk about it because I didn't want to belittle
the people who were out there, the families who are living in cars, people
who are suffering. I had nights where I slept on park benches, but for most
of the part, I had friends who helped out, let me sleep over their house. I
was playing in bands, I didn't have a place to go afterward. It was just a
character building experience.
Is it a contrast to where you are now?
Thomas: It's one of the weirder things that comes with success. That phantom
guilt. You can go two or three days without doing anything and start to
wonder, "What am I doing with my life?" Then you realise, "Yeah, I've got
something going on, Write music and play music is all I have to do now."
That was the biggest blessing of all.
Tell me about the good life, the excesses...
Thomas: We just drank a lot and picked up girls.
Doucette: That was our main vice.
Thomas: Me and Paul would sit in one room of a hotel and the other room would be like beer and booze, and women passed out, and we'd sit on the couch going, "You know, man, we live in a very shallow existence. Do you want another beer?". We drank out Pantera.
Doucette: It's true.
Thomas: For 2 years it was constant, all the time.
Doucette: It was easy to get caught up in it. You do a show, end up in a
bar, and the next thing you know, you've got $700 on your bar tab. And I
didn't care, I was like "I don't care, I can pay for it".
What turned you around?
Doucette: During our last trip overseas.
Thomas: Paul started digging in at me. (Laughs) I was actually drunk on the plane and he was telling me this. It was like "Rob, man, listen, I'm your best friend and nobody else can tell you this. You look like shit, you sound like shit. Why don't you just stop."
Doucette: But I couldn't be a hypocrite and say "But I'm doing fine, so I'll just keep going." I stopped too.
Thomas: And the big test was the other night, Paul's birthday. We came back from the gig and just hung out in my room watching a movie.
Doucette: I can't remember a birthday when I was sober. I would be drunk, falling on the ground and puking on myself.
Thomas: Now we can't drink. The other night we had a beer and got wasted.
Doucette: Yeah, that's fucked up, too. I'm a little guy, and I have built up
a hell of an alcoholic tolerance over the years. I put hard work into that.
What about women?
Doucette: We can't lie about that. We had our fair share of women as well.
It's shallow, you're usually drunk, but you don't care. It's like, "I'm
going to get laid". It's just one of those situations you wouldn't normally
put yourself in.
Do you find them, or do they find you?
Doucette: We would go out looking.
Thomas: Yeah, and we weren't as selective as we should have been. Now I'm
engaged and my girlfriend will watch me when I'm looking around the room.
She'll go "Why are you looking at her? If you're going to look around, why
don't you at least look at the pretty girls." (Laughs) It's really sad.
How do you think 'Yourself Or Someone Like You' connected with Australian fans?
Thomas: The songs deal with people issues. It's about relating to other people and relationships. Because you live in Australia, it doesn't change the fact you have personal relationships, you have loneliness, you have to learn to be yourself, and how to be with other people.
Doucette: I've been told on numerous occasions we have an Australian sense of humour.
Gaynor: Yeah, here in America, people don't find us funny at all. We're like
Benny Hill.
(Thomas in an aside to Doucette, mentions a casting agent has stopped by the
hotel to offer a movie part)
Are you considering acting as an option?
Thomas: I appreciate the offer, but, no. It's funny how you succeed in one
thing, then they want you for something else. "If you've made a hit record,
you must be an actor!"
What roles do they see you playing?
Thomas: They tell me "You're the drifter..."
Doucette: "The drifter involved in the life of a 13 year old girl..."
Thomas: I got the script for a Jennifer Love Hewitt movie (wild smile) I
can't do it.
What were you going to do with Jennifer Love Hewitt?
Gaynor: Yeah Rob, what were you going to do with Jennifer Love Hewitt?
Thomas: Oh, a small part, her boyfriend or something...
Gaynor: (Laughing) Stunt dick!
Do you have any on stage moves?
Doucette: Kyle has various angst-ridden poses. I just sit there with a cigarette in my mouth, throwing my head from side to side.
Thomas: Yeah, bony Carlos! (pauses to think about his own schtick) I fail.
Doucette: Rob clutches his sleeve and flails about. I'm sorry, I don't mean to insult anyone in the band, but Kyle has the coolest moves in this band. I was watching our video from the other night and Kyle's like: "Rock Star!" Kyle's got a nice ass. That's the thing driving Matchbox 20 - we are striving to have Kyle's ass.
Thomas: And we all look better in clothes.
Gaynor: What about Van Halen? Eddies go a nice butt.
Why are we talking about Van Halen?
Thomas: There was this whole weird thing going on the last time we were in
Australia. We were meant to be having this showdown with Van Halen when we
got to Sydney.
Over what?
Doucette: They were ragging on us, we heard that they'd said some negative things, and I got asked about it when me and Rob were doing a TV show. I called him a pansy fuck, and they aired it! That's what I love about Australia. Then it got blown out of proportion. We talked to Eddie, and everything is fine. Matchbox 20 and Van Halen is getting back together. Actually, Adam and Gary [ Cherone, ex-Extreme, now Van Halen lead singer], they go back
Gaynor: (sheepishly) I worked for Extreme. I answered phones at the studio. Eddies not the problem man. Did you know - remember this Rob? - one critic said Matchbox 20 was responsible for killing rock and roll.
Thomas: Yeah, our one album killed rock and roll as we know it.
That's a heavy charge:
Thomas: (laughs) Yeah, I guess I should call up the Rolling Stones and
apologise. I feel just terrible.
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