- 4 months ago
Rob Thomas stops by the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk about his upcoming album with Race Taylor.
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00:00Hi there, I'm Race Taylor from 101.1 CBS FM. Welcome to the Rockstar Suite, Hard Rock Hotel,
00:06in the heart of New York City and Times Square. Our guest today, a longtime friend,
00:10Mr. Rob Thomas, with a brand new album and a tour coming. Welcome.
00:13Man, it's good to see you again, man.
00:15We go way back, and just to set the stage, I don't even know if you recall,
00:20a tiny club off the Ohio River, downtown Cincinnati, called Caddy's.
00:24Oh, wow. Yeah, of course.
00:25Yeah, so push was just starting to break. Long Day kind of did its thing at rock.
00:31It did it quick and went away.
00:33Right, but then this song catches fire, and all of a sudden, we're talking backstage,
00:39and the momentum is building and building and building.
00:42Did that guy, back then, ever look this far into the future and see the success of the band
00:49and the success of the solo career and everything else?
00:52I mean, I didn't realize I was going to be in the Rockstar Suite.
00:57Yeah, I mean, I think it's funny.
00:59Like, when you're young, you have a very kind of naive version of what you think success is
01:05when you think about what, you know.
01:06Sure.
01:07Like, for me, I think I never saw past, like, I'm going to come back,
01:10and I'm going to, like, play my high school talent contest and show them.
01:13I'm going to show them all.
01:14Yeah, I get that. I get that, sure.
01:15I mean, you never thought about, like, being in your 50s and looking back on, like, a 30-year catalog
01:21and, like, what a gift it is to be someone's nostalgia, you know, to have certain songs
01:26that, like, people have grown up with, and you just go, oh, that's, like, that's mind-blowing.
01:30Yeah.
01:30We watched a little bit of the podcast with you and Blossom, Mayim Bialik.
01:35Oh, yeah.
01:35I think this was, like, from a year ago, and she couldn't believe that you knew who she was.
01:40That blew me away.
01:40I was like, everybody knows who you are.
01:42Yeah, exactly, but the whole nostalgia thing, I think after everything that's happened over
01:47the course of the last five years, we gravitate towards that now.
01:50Yeah, and I think, you know, there's a period right in the middle, if you're lucky enough
01:53to have, to be around for a minute, and you'll appreciate this, if you're lucky enough to
01:56be around for a minute, there's a point in the middle where you're just like, no, no,
02:00no, check out my new stuff.
02:02It's all about the new, and I am so happy about this new record.
02:05I'm so happy about these new songs.
02:06Yeah.
02:07But then people are like, well, does it make you feel bad if somebody's like, oh, I really want
02:10to hear 3 a.m.?
02:10And I'm like, no, that's amazing that people still want to hear 3 a.m. or push or this
02:14how heart breaks, you know?
02:15Yeah.
02:16The thing about music and the time in people's lives is it is harder as they age to embrace
02:23things that are new.
02:24But what is fascinating about your trajectory is that you are writing songs that talk about
02:31the human experience, that are relevant, that are current, that sound in no way whatsoever
02:37dated.
02:38You are now, in this era, going to be someone else's nostalgia 20 years from now.
02:43Well, that's nice of you saying, we'll knock on wood somewhere.
02:45Yeah.
02:45Let's do that.
02:46Yeah.
02:46I mean, I think, you know, the thing about the human condition as it is, is that it hasn't
02:50really changed a lot in the last 100 years.
02:52You know what I mean?
02:53I think the way that people relate to each other and the things, you know, society changes
02:59around it.
03:00The things that you're allowed to talk about, the way that you're allowed to approach them,
03:03the things that you're allowed to be okay with about yourself that you used to hide,
03:06those things, you know, are more in the light.
03:08But I think the human condition as it is, hasn't changed very much.
03:12That's why, you know, a Sam Cooke song hits you just as hard today as ever, because you
03:16feel that longing.
03:18Right.
03:18But the people who are now discovering your older music, and we're going to talk about
03:23the new album, but it seems like they find it on their own, where we were forced to
03:28listen to it in the car with our parents, and it was force-fed to us.
03:31Now, they discover it on their own, and it is theirs.
03:35You know, there's so many ways that the business and how we consume music has changed.
03:40In the yourself or something like you era, or someone like you, it was, you know, $16.99
03:46for a CD.
03:47Now it's streaming and MP3s.
03:48Well, it's also like, I think it was, I think it was one of like the three, you know, big
03:56attorneys at the time, and he's just like, he pulls this in, and he's like, okay, listen,
03:58Rob, here's the thing.
03:59There's like five guys.
04:01It's like five guys, and they're going to decide everything.
04:04You know what I mean?
04:04And at the time, it kind of felt like that.
04:06There was, we had, you know, in radio and at the labels, there was a handful of gatekeepers.
04:12And if you were lucky enough to get into that pipeline, you know, it was a traditional
04:17sense of the music business that it probably existed since the 50s, right?
04:20Since the first Alan Freed rock and roll show.
04:23Oh, man.
04:23It was, you know, you're a band, you write songs, you get them on the radio, you go,
04:27you play live, a label comes and sees you.
04:29And, you know, and if that happens, yeah, it goes.
04:33I mean, now it's an exciting time to think about like choice, you know, like if you're
04:40a fan of music, access, choice, these things that, you know, that ability, like if I could,
04:45like I can be an old guy now and talk about like, oh, back in the day, it was cool when
04:49you didn't know about, you know, what your artists were eating for breakfast.
04:51Right, right.
04:52But like, I think if I could have known what Tom Petty was having for breakfast, I would
04:56have wanted to know.
04:58Showing up with a box of Cap'n Crunch for crying out loud, right down the street.
05:02So the new album, All Night Days, and the tour with stops in New York City in August, it's
05:07the rooftop of Pier 17 and it's PNC Bank Art Center.
05:10We hear the hard to be happy song and we think, well, Rob Thomas has written some songs in
05:14the past few weeks and went down to his basement and recorded them.
05:17These songs have been brewing for a while.
05:19I like, I like your story better though.
05:21Right?
05:21It sounds way cooler.
05:22And faster.
05:23Yeah.
05:23It just never happens that quickly.
05:26So when I hear you tell a story about writing hard to be happy in a Zoom session, I'm like,
05:31wait a minute, this song started then?
05:34Yeah.
05:35Like 2000 or 2020, 2021?
05:37Yeah, I mean, we never recorded it, but you know, the germ of it and everything that started,
05:42it started with me, Todd Clark and Derek Fuhrman, who I, you know, I would say for his
05:48family, he unfortunately passed away just a couple of days before the song came out.
05:53I'm sorry to hear that.
05:54And he was battling, you know, with cancer and his whole family knew it, but no one else,
05:58none of his friends did.
05:58We were all blown away.
06:00But he was such a talented writer and, you know, he was the beginning impetus for this
06:04whole, you know, vibe of hard to be happy.
06:06So I always want to make sure that people, you know, give him that credit.
06:09But, you know, it was existing in a time where we were doing a lot of Zoom writing.
06:16I wasn't writing for me at the time, really, either.
06:18I was writing, you know, for a lot of other people.
06:20I had spent so long writing by myself.
06:24Right.
06:25That I was, the whole lockdown started to really show me how much fun it was to rely on other
06:31writers to like get some ideas and to spark new directions.
06:35And so we did hard to be happy only because we had been writing a bunch of sad songs recently.
06:40And we're like, well, we need to do something happy.
06:43And then I was like, well, it's hard to be happy.
06:46Like you're sitting there trying to find something upbeat.
06:47Like it's hard to be upbeat.
06:49And so we kind of, everything ran from there.
06:51And I was, we kind of sat on that song because it was before everything locked down.
06:56Matchbox 20 was going to go out on tour.
06:58We hadn't been out for a few years.
06:59I think we were maybe going to release a song.
07:02I wasn't sure, but I was working on a new solo record.
07:05So I had like Hand in My Hand, Hard to Be Happy, Thrill Me.
07:10Thrill Me.
07:10Yeah.
07:11So I had these songs like already started.
07:13And plus a couple of songs that wound up on the Matchbox 20 record in 2023.
07:17Songs like Queen of New York City, Don't Get Me Wrong.
07:20Like those songs were all supposed to be on my solo record.
07:24And then after three years, Matchbox was like, well, I think now we want to make a record.
07:28Right.
07:28And then, you know, there was just that whole process of like, what do you have lying around?
07:33So the committee decides.
07:34They're like, hey, we think this is us.
07:36Or we, they say, they may be here Hard to Be Happy and think, oh, that could be yourself.
07:40Yeah, it wasn't for them.
07:41It's funny.
07:42There's certain songs that like Paul from Matchbox will say, yeah, that's not on the Matchbox record because I don't like that song.
07:48Okay.
07:49Like Hard to Be Happy.
07:51He's like, no, you didn't play me that.
07:52He's like, I would have wanted to mess with that.
07:53You didn't play me that.
07:54But I think, you know, a lot of people ask, it was like, do you write differently from Matchbox and solo?
08:00And in all honesty, it's, it, that's, that's a very nice thought that I'm that talented that I could make that kind of choice in the moment.
08:08Like, you know, not now.
08:10I'm going to turn off this side of my brain.
08:11Yeah.
08:12But in truth, like I just, you have to write so much and then you bring it to Matchbox.
08:16And luckily, that's like, I don't have to make all the decisions.
08:19I can bring in the song and they can be like, I don't like it.
08:22And I'm like, okay, well, let's not do that.
08:23You know, that's when you throw down the songwriter Hall of Fame card.
08:26You're just like, oh, this one's going to go here and this one's going to go over here.
08:29I remember one time we were sitting with Paul, we were writing She's So Mean.
08:33I love that song.
08:33And we had the whole song kind of figured out, but we're fine tuning the lyrics.
08:38And like Paul and I were sitting in the studio, we're like in the kitchen of the studio.
08:41And like literally one of those moments where we're just quietly staring at a blank page, trying to come up with the right turn of phrase.
08:47And Paul just looks at me, he goes, didn't you win a Grammy?
08:52Like, come on, man.
08:53Give me something.
08:55Give me something.
08:55I'm not living up to the hype over there.
08:58I hear a song like Throw Me, and I know who that's written for.
09:02Your Beautiful Bride and your history and all of the things that you've been through together.
09:08Does a song like that fall out of the sky for you, or does it still take a little bit of work to get it where you want it to be?
09:13Well, honestly, that chorus had been written.
09:17I had that chorus completely like that came out of nowhere immediately.
09:21Like a lot of really good songs, you write it in your head, either like when you're in the car or if I'm like out in the backyard or if I'm doing something.
09:28And then you go to a piano or a guitar and you kind of flesh it out from there.
09:33But I never, I didn't have the rest of it at all.
09:36And I started writing with Tim Lopez, who is one of the writers in the Plain White Tees.
09:44Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:45He didn't do Hey There, Delilah, but he did like Rhythm of Love and ABC, you know, like.
09:48Those are big songs, yeah.
09:50And so him and I, because we toured with those guys and he became a good friend.
09:53And so him and I sat down and he started that verse and then it just, everything just was wide open.
09:59So, yeah.
10:00I listen to a song like that or I hear other parts of your solo and band catalog.
10:05And I think music and the writing process has to be somewhat therapeutic for you.
10:10Sure.
10:11The way to flesh everything out.
10:12Yeah.
10:12Our company has a huge initiative when it talks about mental health and we have a special show and special concerts when it comes to October.
10:21Or if you don't mind, a quick question or two just about mental health.
10:24Have you found that that conversation is easier to have now?
10:29Has it evolved over the years from where your vantage point?
10:32Yeah, you can have that conversation now.
10:34I mean, if you're talking about growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, like mental health was just like man up.
10:41Yeah, right.
10:42Just stop being a wuss about it.
10:44Punch on the shoulder.
10:44Yeah.
10:45Get in there.
10:45Yeah, and the idea of like if you looked at your friend, you know, in 1993 and was like, I think I'm sad, you know, they would look at you like you were crazy.
10:55But if you write a song about being sad, then all of a sudden people are like, oh, yeah, I kind of understand it.
11:00So I think there was like a there was a certain kind of cathartic nature in the idea that like if you're feeling something, you go and you can write it down.
11:09You could try and figure it out in a way that makes more sense with a melody.
11:15And then you could go out and scream it in front of people, which is just like pure primal therapy sometimes just to get that out.
11:21Sure.
11:21And then have them scream it back to you, you know, because like when I was growing up, it was the same thing.
11:26When I was a little kid, there were certain songs that meant something to me because they said what I was feeling better than I could articulate it myself.
11:33And then and you're like, oh, I can.
11:35That's what I mean, you know.
11:36And so you would you'd have a girlfriend.
11:38You're like, I can't tell you how I feel, but here, I'm going to play this mixtape.
11:41You know, this took me a week.
11:42This is Girl, I'm going to miss you by Milli Vanilli.
11:47Two quick questions.
11:48As we sit here today in the heart of New York City and you look at a solo tour, that's not only going to take you around the States for the fall, but Australia and I'm assuming the rest of the world.
11:58Where are you when it comes to rehearsal?
12:00We're watching the Billy Joel documentary.
12:03We see him in a huge hangar with a band in Long Island, fleshing some things out.
12:07Right.
12:07What's that like for you?
12:08Are you in a theater in your hometown?
12:09I started, it's funny.
12:10So I started, the band got in a few days ago and they've been rehearsing and then I came
12:15in last night and so we've got this place that's in somewhere, I don't want to, I don't know
12:21that I want to say it like out there, but it's up, it's about an hour north of me.
12:24So it's up in New York a little bit.
12:26Yeah.
12:27The Berkshires.
12:27Yeah.
12:28And it's like, it's in the, it's a giant warehouse that's the bottom part of a motorcycle museum.
12:34Oh, come on.
12:35Yeah.
12:36And apparently they have like, I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to go today.
12:38They have the Prince motorcycle there.
12:40They had like Steve McQueen motorcycle there.
12:42So like, yeah.
12:43So it's this whole world.
12:44And then we, what we do is at the end of this week, we're going to Nashville where we rent
12:49out an actual venue so we can do it with the lights and the production and the sound and
12:53like work on that part of it.
12:55Those are just called production rehearsals before we move it to Atlanta for the first
12:59show.
12:59Nashville going to get their claws.
13:01Yeah.
13:01Nashville is there for sure.
13:03And this is fun.
13:04Like, you know, it's, it's the first tour that I'm doing with my son as the guitar player.
13:08How cool is that?
13:10It's kind of amazing.
13:10Did you watch his process as a guitar player?
13:14Were there lessons?
13:15Was he just learning with you?
13:16Or did you like, you know, you got to go to the house of music and sit with Mark for
13:19a half hour.
13:20No, I mean, he went to, he graduated from Berkeley in Boston.
13:23So impressive.
13:24Yeah.
13:24He was, he was, he was a good guitar player.
13:26He left at a great guitar player.
13:28He moved to, um, to LA to, to live with his band that he met at Berkeley, you know, the
13:33lucky they're out there in LA.
13:35And, uh, when my guitar player kind of retired from playing live, I asked him if he wanted
13:39a gig.
13:40Nice.
13:40Yeah.
13:41The kid's got chops.
13:42He really does.
13:42Or else he would not get the gig.
13:43I love him, but I don't love him enough for him to screw up my set.
13:47Yeah.
13:47That is impressive.
13:48One last question.
13:49Uh, when we've been in this room and talked to people before we've asked about a specific
13:54radio memory, maybe it's from your childhood.
13:57Maybe it's a song.
13:57You kind of gave us one a little bit with the mixtape, but is there something that sticks
14:01out with you?
14:02So many people are talking about how great their playlists are or their streaming or their
14:07podcast, but we love the intimacy of radio.
14:09What is the one moment that sticks out?
14:12Well, I mean, we were, I mean, I think when you think about bands like us, we were quintessential
14:16radio bands.
14:17You know, we were, when we started doing this, we were an unknown band, Kim Stevens, you know,
14:22rest in peace.
14:23He, uh, would take us out to, to these radio stations before anybody, before we had a
14:28record out.
14:29Oh, sure.
14:29And we would take some pizza and bring it into conference rooms and conference room
14:33concerts, play for whoever was there.
14:35And sometimes there were DJs.
14:36Sometimes it was just interns, but we would play whoever was there.
14:39Um, and, and I'm not saying this because you're here.
14:43I mean, a huge part of that part of like the spark that really made it take off from
14:48Matchbox 20 was all the stuff that was happening at PLJ at the time.
14:50You know, I mean, that was our first really big kind of partnership that we had with, with
14:55a label.
14:56I mean, a, like a station of that size, you know, and what you guys did and Scott did,
15:00you know, I mean, you guys really were in our corner.
15:02We loved it.
15:03Turn after turn after turn.
15:04It was pretty great.
15:05Well, you never let us down because whether it was band stuff or solo stuff, it was hit
15:09after hit after hit.
15:10And now here we are 30 years later, rockstar suite and there's more congratulations, man.
15:16Look at that.
15:17Very nice.
15:17We're doing it.
15:18The love socks, the stripes, we're all in it.
15:20Rob Thomas, hard to be happy is the new single.
15:23And of course the brand new album all night days, which I first thought was D A Z E.
15:28And I'm like, Ooh, I haven't had one of those in a while.
15:30Yeah.
15:30I haven't had an all night day either.
15:33We will see you later this month in the city and at PNC Bank Art Center.
15:38Congratulations, man.
15:39Good to see you, brother.
15:40Awesome.
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