What started off as a way to attract girls in high school, soon became a living, as Rob became involved with numerous bands. Between 1993 and 1995 Rob was part of the band "Tabitha’s Secret", through which he became involved with Brian Yale, Paul Doucette, John Leslie Goff and John Joseph Stanley. It was in 1996 that Rob, Paul and Brian left the group to form what was later to become Matchbox 20.

They "recruited the talents" of Adam Gaynor from Criteria Recording, and Kyle Cook from the Atlanta Institute of Music, and went in to do the record. "We weren’t really a band for that long, we’d played like one show and then we went in to make this record." –Paul. But regardless of the fact that they hadn’t been a band for that long, Matchbox 20’s debut album, 'YOURSELF OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU', has been a real chart topper. In Australia the album has gone 4 times platinum, and is still raging in the top ten (ARIA), recently reaching #1. Matchbox 20, despite their massive success and popularity, still have their feet planted on the ground. Kyle believes that the band have been "kind of lucky" with their success. 'YOURSELF OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU' takes the listener on a journey through the lives of people having troubles, and "people relating to other people". Rob Thomas tells us stories in the way a close friend does, and he brings the listener in to the song as he belts out the words that send shivers down spines, and cause mascara to run. 'YOURSELF OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU' is definitely a superb work of a fine band- definately not, "bland and timid American music". Engaging, serene and intimate are just 3 words that almost say it all.

Rob truly believes that you’re really lucky if you can write songs and benefit personally from them. He says that his job is "everything you’d want to do" rolled into the one job. For the past year or so, the boys from Matchbox 20 have treated their fans to live shows across the globe. As Kyle promised before a concert once said "We’ll rock them thoroughly", and you can be sure they did. The band has plans to take some time off after they finish the tour, before they start on the next album. "everyone’s growing as song writers everyone’s growing at their individual instruments, so it’s going to go way further" (Paul on the "next album").

The band’s live shows are "electrifying" and a reminder of "what can be achieved when musicians never lose sight of the fact that the song is the most important thing".

In their current tour Matchbox 20 have taken on the talents of Joey Huffman on keyboards whom they :stole from the evil clutches of Soul Asylum"Rumour has it that Joey will be staying on with the matchsticks for the future album....

##Words in Italics are direct quotes from the band.