Matchbox Twenty: Whatever Happened To The Band & Rob Thomas -

Whatever happened to The Band Matchbox Twenty behind hits 3AM, Real World and Push

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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

The single that made Matchbox 20 a household name would be the song “Push,”. The song’s lyrics about a troubled relationship came during Thomas first trip to New York City and soon drew criticism from feminist groups with one group in New Hampshire calling for radio stations to stop playing the song. Thomas pushed back against these assertions. Nice pun right? The song isn’t a call for physical violence but rather an observations of the emotional battles a relationship goes through and saw Thomas claim the song was inspired by a relationship in which he was the one who was mistreated.
Thomas would recall to the LA Times watching MTV News one day and seeing an ex-girlfriend of his being interviewed claiming to be the inspiration behind the song Push and threatening to sue Matchbox 20 for unpaid royalties. Luckily for him, she wasn’t serious and no lawsuit would be filed.
In reality the song was about a different high school girlfriend who broke up with Thomas by donating his possessions to Goodwill telling the LA Times “I had no clothes, nothing. All the local bands got together and gave me their band T-shirts. For months, that’s all I wore.”
The success of the band’s first album would result in them being all over MTV and rock radio but the Matchbox 20 still had an identity problem. Despite people magazine naming Rob Thomas one of it’s 50 most beautiful people of 1998 MTV sent a camera crew to one of the band’s shows and asked attendees to simply name one of the band members and many people could not answer the question. How did the band feel about this? Well, Thomas saw it as a vindication that the band’s music was more important than their image, while other members couldn’t believe it as they appeared in all their own music videos. Thomas would tell Rolling Stone in 2009 “My songs are more famous than I am, and I’m OK with that.”
The band’s success soon saw them lumped in with the likes of the counting crows and hootie and the blowfish with the LA Times writing on their profile of the band “Matchbox 20, like the Crows and Hootie, has sold millions of records by approximating the sound of an earlier era, which makes their music reassuring for listeners who moan about the loss of classic songwriting values in rock, but who don’t seem to demand the challenge and individuality that gave the best of that music its power.”
Some of the critics weren’t kind to the band. Their detractors referred to the band as corporate radio fluff. Even some of their rock heroes were less than supprortive. Thomas would meet one of his idols Keith Richards who had hoped that hte guitarist would compliment Matchbox 20’s music. Instead Thomas recalled Richards saying “Oh, you’re the one with the wife.” referring to his wife a fashion model. Then you had fellow musicians who came up during the same time who didn’t show the band respect.
In perhaps the most 90’s feud Third Eye blind frontman Stephen Jenkins also slammed Thomas. Matchbox 20’s tour for their first album saw Thomas gain 20 pounds. At one point Jenkins called Thomas fat to which thomas responded in an interview with spin saying and I don’t care who knows it. [Stephan Jenkins] made fun of me—called me a fat guy. Screw you! He has no soul whatsoever.
Thomas would tell Rolling STone how the success of the group’s first album took it’s toll on him personally.
I was the only person ever with a coke habit to gain fifty pounds. We did an MTV Live From the 10 Spot, and that was the first time I’d had good look at myself in a while. Not only was I heavy, but I had dark eyes, my face was all puffy. That was pretty fucked up. I’d met my future wife at that point, and she showed the tape to her mother. Her mother was like, “Why the fuck are you going out with the guy? He’s ugly! Thomas would end up curtailing his habits and the band’s first album would go on to sell 12 million copies, but it also came with one additional headache. The man on the front cover of the band’s album sued them for not getting his permission to put his likeness on the record. He would file his lawsuit nearly a decade after the album came out b