Rob Thomas: Allow Your Environment to Inform Your Creativity
Mayim Bialik's Breakdown
Mayim Bialik
4.8 • 5.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2024
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rob Thomas (lead singer of Matchbox 20) makes a rare podcast appearance to discuss how he went from stealing cars to being one of the most notable voices in alternative rock! He opens up about his tumultuous childhood growing up with an absent father and his mom’s Hodgkins diagnosis, the life lessons he learned from his liquor-bootlegging grandma, and his skepticism of genuine connections after dealing with “transactional” relationships for so long. Rob shares fascinating insights into the deep meanings behind so many of Matchbox 20’s hits, from which of their most famous songs is actually about mental health to his feelings on their hit song “Push’s” role in the new Barbie movie. He reveals the surprising origins of his famous collab with Carlos Santana and his love-hate relationship with “Smooth” now, how songwriting can be a form of therapy for him, how each member of Matchbox 20 being in therapy affects their collaboration, and what he credits his longtime marriage to in the midst of a rock-and-roll lifestyle. Rob also reflects on the value of social media, why he almost stopped therapy after a bad experience, his complicated relationship with alcohol today, his couples therapy goals, his struggles with panic attacks and what he does to manage them.
Rob Thomas’ charity, Sidewalk Angels Foundation: https://www.sidewalkangelsfoundation.org/about
Matchbox Twenty’s new album, Where the Light Goes: https://matchboxtwenty.com/releases/where-the-light-goes/
See Matchbox 20 on tour: https://matchboxtwenty.com/events/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | And there was this convertible full of girls and it was stopped at the red light and they were blaring smooth out of the car. |
| 0:10.6 | And that's how I found out that it was a single. That was me, |
| 0:14.9 | that was me at the corner of Spring and Green. That was me. I was like, |
| 0:18.1 | fuck, it's blossom. And then I thought that I had an unreasonable understanding of what a successful song is, but this was another world. |
| 0:29.0 | It was a worldwide immediate smash. And it was like, I mean to this day if I meet someone |
| 0:35.6 | especially for another country and they're like oh I love that song I know what song that they're |
| 0:39.7 | talking about when it came out I was in love with it, then like a bunch of other people, I got really, really |
| 0:45.2 | sick of it and didn't want to hear it again. |
| 0:47.9 | And then like 20 years later it started to creep back in and I was just kind of like all right you know I could live with you now |
| 0:53.6 | now you know I think it's because right off the bat there's an element of cheese to man it's a hot one like |
| 1:00.5 | it's just it I love it. It's so cheesy, but somehow it's the only line that would work |
| 1:08.1 | In some ways it's like you're gonna float away. It's hard to explain to how you feel a million pounds and weightless at the exact same time. |
| 1:16.4 | But you feel like a lead balloon that's about to float away. |
| 1:19.1 | I feel my heart in like every part of my body and it feels hard not necessarily fast it just feels |
| 1:26.9 | whom hmhmhoo and I feel like I can feel at my knees I can feel it everywhere and if I if I fixate on it it makes it keeps |
| 1:37.3 | coming it keeps coming and keeps coming and keeps coming and it would get to a |
| 1:40.9 | point where I could make it come on just because I would be |
| 1:44.0 | sometimes I would just be so excited that I was doing something and not having a |
| 1:48.0 | panic attack and that thought would make it start going oh yeah and then it would just |
| 1:51.4 | kind of come creeping in. |
| 1:53.0 | It's my and bialix breakdown she's going to break it down for you because you know she |
| 1:58.9 | knows a thing or two. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mayim Bialik, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mayim Bialik and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.