According to Rob Thomas, he’s very rarely not on the road or making a record.
It checks out. After releasing and promoting his last two studio albums – 2019’s Chip Tooth Smile and 2021 Christmas album, Something About Christmas Time – the beloved US songwriter regrouped with Matchbox Twenty in 2023 to release their first record in 11 years, Where the Light Goes. That run included a huge global tour, including a sold-out Australian run.
Now, after all that, Thomas is back with his sixth solo studio album, All Night Days, which he is touring through the US now before hitting Australia and New Zealand next month. But as he tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ, the journey to this record started even before the Matchbox Twenty reunion.
“If you think about the last Matchbox record, there were songs like ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ and ‘Queen of New York City’ that were probably slated to be whatever this record was gonna be. Originally, we weren’t gonna make a Matchbox record before COVID. We were just gonna tour, I was working on the solo record. ‘Hard to Be Happy’ was one of those songs, and two or three of the songs that wound up on the Matchbox record were on that.”
Much like Matchbox Twenty’s last album, All Night Days feels upbeat and freeing. Having sold over 80 million records with the pop rock band and his solo material, the 53-year-old artist still wants to produce his best work, he just doesn’t feel the pressure as much anymore.
“It doesn’t feel much different than my normal approach,” he explains, “the only difference is I don’t feel like the stakes are as high. As I get older, I realised there’s a certain moment where I go ‘if I try too hard to write to the hit, then what I’m trying to do is try and write in the voice of someone who is much younger than I am.’
“There’s a certain ground where the hits, [they are] meant for someone else, you know? It’s my son’s generation to come up with what’s gonna be that now. And it’s my generation now to, who have been lucky enough to have a career as long as I have, you’re lucky enough to be someone’s nostalgia. That is its own gift. I know that I’ve got younger generations that don’t even know I have a new record out, but they get so excited to hear ‘3AM’ or ‘Little Wonders’.
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“There’s a small generation I’m just learning about that’s in the middle that are, like, literally on social media saying, ‘I’m this many years old when I realised that the guy Rob Thomas is the guy from Matchbox Twenty because they’re in their twenties and they started with my solo stuff.’
“We’ve never been famous. We’ve always had famous music, but we’ve never really been celebrities of any kind, and our music came out at a time where you could do that even more so, right. Now, it’s part and parcel with everything else. I think to make things happen, you need a social media machine that’s driving it along while you’re doing it. Back then, the radio was king, and so you could be a faceless radio band and do really really well. But it also meant that you as a person weren’t singled out as like a celebrity.”
Another Matchbox Twenty hit, “Push”, got a second life thanks to the billion dollar Barbie film (Ken’s favourite song in the real world). Despite the song originally being released in 1997, “Push” returned to the top 20 of the US charts after the film’s release in 2023.
But it’s not something Thomas is offended by or even worried about; as far as he’s concerned, it’s a sign that his music plays an important part in people’s lives.
“I was having an interview the other day… I got this new record out. They like the record. They’re very complimentary of the record. But they’re like, ‘Do you get bummed out, though, that like, I wanna hear “Little Wonders”, or I want to hear “3AM” when I come see you live?’ I’m excited about that. You realise what a gift it is to be nostalgia. It’s not something that’s afforded to everyone.
“The boys in INXS — what those songs mean to me, every time I hear them, it takes you back to the place that you were when you first heard those songs. And the idea that I could possibly be that, whether it be a new song, an old song, a live show, or through somebody else’s vision of me in a film, all those things are gifts to be able to have.
“Over the last 30 years, 20 with my solo, we’ve built a house. Let’s all come under that roof together and share this time in that house that we all built together, right? Billy Joel hasn’t written a new record in God knows how long, and he goes out and every night he plays [Madison Square Garden] and sells it out for, like, 100, 200 now shows in it, right? I don’t think anybody’s worried that he’s not playing his new stuff.
“The longevity of my career has given me a chance where I can spend my day still writing because no matter what happens, if I don’t write, I don’t feel worthwhile. And it’s not about how it’s received anymore. It’s not ‘if I don’t write a hit, I don’t feel worthwhile,’ it’s just that if I’m not creating new stuff, it builds up inside of me, and it’s like there’s a release valve that has to get let out…
“And luckily enough, there’s still a lot of people that get really excited to hear the stuff that I have.”
It won’t stop there, either. There’s still more solo and Matchbox Twenty work to come, especially given that 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of his solo debut album, …Something to be, while 2026 will be the 30th anniversary of Matchbox’s first record, Someone Like You.
“I’m gonna die with a lot of songs that I’ve written that no one’s ever heard,” Thomas laughs.
Keep an eye on Rolling Stone AU/NZ for news on what’s in store for the anniversary tours.
All Night Days is out now via Universal Records.
