Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas branches out
By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun
Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas can't really be faulted for not wanting to give up his association with 52-year-old guitar legend Carlos Santana.
Maybe ever.
It was their work together on Smooth, Santana's single that garnered Thomas, who co-wrote and sang the tune, three Grammys earlier this year. Santana personally took home a leading eight trophies for all the work on his comeback album, Supernatural.
"It's funny how we can both come from such different places and still share the same moment," says Thomas, 27, down the line from his band's Atlanta rehearsal space prior to their sold-out show at the Guvernment here on Sunday.
"And it was still a really significant moment for both of us for different reasons. I think because of that, we'll always have that. It really is a neat thing."
Thomas says when Santana, who himself plays the Molson Amphitheatre on Aug. 9, takes a break in October, Thomas and his wife plan to visit the guitarist and his family in his homebase of San Francisco.
"Maybe writing something from scratch ... for me that would be an amazing opportunity -- to sit alone with Carlos and do some writing," he says. "With Smooth, it was a song that me and Itaal Shur wrote for Santana. We recorded it together, me and Santana, but we didn't sit down and conceive something together."
Thomas has also collaborated with Elton John's writing partner Bernie Taupin on a country song called So Far From The Fire.
"Oh, yeah, I wrote with Bernie. That was just a goof. He sent me lyrics 'cause we have a mutual friend, our manager, and so I became friends with him. And I said at a party, 'Hey, you know, I want to write something with you, man, just send me something.' And he did. I don't know what we're going to do with it, but it was just an honour for me to say that I put music to Bernie Taupin lyrics.
Day job
"I'm trying to branch out," continues Thomas. "I want to work with R&B writers, and I want to work with country writers, and I want to work with jazz writers."
Not that Thomas wants to give up on his day job.
Just this week, the group released Mad Season By Matchbox Twenty -- the soft rocking band's sophomore followup to their 10 million-selling 1996 debut, Yourself Or Someone Like You.
Thomas says his bandmates in Matchbox Twenty -- who will play in Europe in June and July before returning for a fall college arena tour in North America -- didn't get their noses out of joint over his phenomenal success with Santana.
"Everybody was really proud of me, because we're all friends first. That's our pact with each other -- if this threatens our friendship then we'll stop, because we want to always be able to play together, even if not in this band."
However, there will always be the naysayers.
"A lot of people, they want to paint Matchbox as obsolete, 'Well now you're going to do a solo thing?' " says Thomas. "Some of the kids on (the VH-1 show) The List, they crossed us off The List, which I think is awful. We all are members and without one of us it doesn't work."