Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas is the award-winning singer-songwriter best known for being frontman of alternative rock band Matchbox Twenty. Born Robert Kelly Thomas in Landstuhl, Germany, on a US military base, Thomas was raised in both South Carolina and Florida. He declared his intent to be a musician at the age of 13 after seeing Genesis on their Invisible Touch Tour. To that end he dropped out of high school and left home to chase his career dreams, eventually meeting up with Paul Doucette, Kyle Cook, Brian Yale and Adam Gaynor to form Matchbox Twenty in 1996.

Matchbox Twenty released their debut album Yourself or Someone Like You in 1996 to huge commercial success. The album generated six hit singles ("Long Day", "Push", "3 A.M.", "Real World" and "Back 2 Good"), keeping Yourself... in the charts throughout 1997 and into 1998. Prior to recording Matchbox Twenty's second album, Thomas was asked by Carlos Santana to collaborate with Itaal Shur for Santana's 1999 comeback album, Supernatural. After writing "Smooth" Thomas recorded a demo version of the track for Santana to listen to, and even though Thomas was meant to act solely as songwriter Santana asked him to sing the track on the album. "Smooth" spent 12 weeks at No.1, becoming one of Billboard's most popular singles ever, giving Santana his first No.1 hit, and winning Thomas three Grammy awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

In 2000, prior to the release of their second album Mad Season, the band changed its name from Matchbox 20 to Matchbox Twenty. Mad Season showed a change of sound for the band, to more grown-up music rich with lush instrumentation and emotive ballads, which was successful enough that the album went on to double platinum status in the US. Their third studio album More Than You Think You Are saw them return to their alt-rock roots and received much critical praise, though it was not as commercially successful as their previous two albums. Then in 2005 Matchbox Twenty decided to take a hiatus allowing Thomas to pursue a solo career.

In 2004, Thomas was awarded the Starlight Award, from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Starlight Award recognizes young songwriters who have made a lasting impact on the music industry. Then in April 2005 Thomas' ...Something to Be LP debuted on the Billboard Top 200 chart at No.1. It was the first time in the chart's 50 year history that a male artist from a rock or pop group had a solo project debut at No.1.

Thomas has written songs for other recording artists, including Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, Marc Anthony, and Taylor Hicks), and written for TV and film.