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Rob Thomas is the Zelig of the music industry.
Over the previous 30 years, the three-time Grammy winner fronted Matchbox 20, collaborated with Carlos Santana on “Smooth,” had a solo profession all of his own and re-entered the zeitgeist when Greta Gerwig wrote his 1997 music “Push” into “Barbie.”
“It’s funny,” Thomas, 53, advised The Post in an unique interview.
“When you’re younger and think about having a long career, you think about success in short, little terms. You don’t think about the long haul. You don’t think about being around long enough to become someone’s nostalgia.”
On Saturday, Jan. 17, the Florida native will embrace his newfound elder statesman standing — his 27-year-old son is his guitarist these days — when he performs a solo show enjoying deep cuts for “home game fans” of his at Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Hotel and Casino as half of his Sidewalk Angels Foundation collection that gives critically needed funds and support to over 20 no-kill animal shelters and animal rescues across the nation.
“When my band and I do these Sidewalk Angels shows, they are for a much-more initiated type of fan,” Thomas defined. “We’ve been going through the archives and pulling out songs I haven’t played in 15 years because I know there’s going to be a group of people that are really going to appreciate it.”
Thomas’ upcoming concert events come on the heels of his 2025 ‘All Night Days Tour,’ named after his recently-released album that shares a identify with the tour and before a Matchbox Twenty pageant run later this summer time.
Throw in his March gig at Carnegie Hall performing at a one-night-only ‘Music of Billy Joel’ show and his standing as a trendy Zelig that does a little bit of everything while seemingly being in all places is more obvious than ever.
Still, that doesn’t imply you should take seeing the tireless hitmaker stay for granted.
“There’s something you’re going to like at our show,” he said. “There’s something you forgot you like. There’s something you didn’t realize that you were going to like.”
For more data, we have everything you need to know and more about Rob Thomas’ 2026 Sidewalk Angels Tour along with an prolonged interview that consists of his ideas on “Smooth”and a story about the craziest factor that’s occurred at a show of his.
You’ll need to scroll to discover out what that one is.
Rob Thomas tickets
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Rob Thomas tour schedule 2026
Should you catch a ‘Sidewalk Angels’ night, you’ll see Thomas in an acoustic four-piece band. The other members are his son, music director and their participant.
A whole calendar including all of their North American tour dates, venues and hyperlinks to buy tickets can be discovered below.
Matchbox 20 tour schedule 2026
In our interview, Thomas advised us “the end of 2026 marks the beginning of the 30th anniversary of our first record. So, we’re doing a lot of festivals, and one-offs to get stuff together so we can plan for what the end of 2026 and then all of 2027 look like.”
At the time of publication, the only fest scheduled is Saint Paul’s Minnesota Yacht Club, which takes place at Harriet Island from July 17-19.
Fellow headliners embrace The Strokes, The Lumineers, The Black Keys, Lord Huron, Geese and more.
Sound like a bucket record expertise?
Snag single or multi-day Minnesota Yacht Club passes here.
About Matchbox’s stay performances, Thomas said “this sounds like a weird humblebrag, but we wanted to put in new songs. We have singles we wouldn’t play because we don’t want a Matchbox concert to feel like a revue show.”
Music of Billy Joel 2026 live performance
Carnegie Hall is the place to be for Billy Joel followers on March 12.
That night, the legendary venue will host ‘The Music of Billy Joel” featuring artists like Rufus Wainwright, Gavin DeGraw, O.A.R.’s Marc Roberge, Train’s Pat Monahan and Joel’s daughter Alexa Ray Joel (along with Thomas, who confirmed he was enjoying “Vienna”).
If you’d like to be at the benefit show that will raise funds for music applications for underserved kids in New York City, you can grab tickets for ‘The Music of Billy Joel’ at Carnegie Hall here.
Rob Thomas set record
Although Thomas will doubtless combine issues up for his ‘Sidewalk Angels’ concert events, here’s a look at what he took to the stage at one of his ultimate ‘All Night Days’ concert events in New Zealand on Nov. 15, 2025, according to Set List FM.
01.) “I Believe It”02.) “Give Me the Meltdown”03.) “Can’t Help Me Now”04.) “Her Diamonds”05.) “Cradlesong”06.) “Heaven Help Me”07.) “Mockingbird”08.) “If You’re Gone” (Matchbox Twenty music)09.) “Hard to Be Happy”10.) “Someday”11.) “Getting Late / That’s All Right”12.) “…Something to Be”13.) “Little Wonders”14.) “Unwell” (Matchbox Twenty music)15.) “3 AM” (Matchbox Twenty music)16.) “Streetcorner Symphony”17.) “Lonely No More”18.) “I Am an Illusion”Encore
19.) “All Night Days”20.) “Under Pressure” (Queen & David Bowie cowl)21.) “Smooth” (Santana cowl)22.) This Is How a Heart Breaks
Rob Thomas interview
We spoke to Thomas for a half hour about his new file, what’s up with Matchbox Twenty, wild tales from stay exhibits and what he thinks about his most profitable songs.
Tell me about “All Night Days.”
I never make a file where I set out to do something like an all-electronic album or all-rock album. I write all the time, and when I really feel like I’ve got enough songs collectively that I think people should hear, I go, “well, that’s an album.”
I also like having one producer the total factor because if you’re going to have a file that thematically feels like it’s all over the place, then it’s good to have some kind of consistency.
Some of this file I had been sitting on since 2021 because I thought I was going to be making a new album sooner. But, fortunately, some of those songs that were going to be on that file got moved away and I wrote what I thought were higher songs.
What is the album about to you?
There’s a lot of themes that have to do with unapologetically getting older. I’m in my mid-fifties now. I used to write songs about being younger perpetually and then I wrote songs about how it sucked to get outdated.
Recently, I got to a level where I began realizing what a present being older is. If you’ve lost pals along the method, you notice that it’s a present not everyone gets afforded. So you begin to actually recognize whatever comes with the age.
What’s touring with your son Maison like?
He’s legitimately one of my best pals. He’s 27, so he’s just a man.
He’s just a phenomenal musician. I actually didn’t know if he was going to need to play with me. He has his own band, The Lucky, that he performs with out in L.A.
Not everybody would leap at the offer to spend a yr hanging out with a bunch of middle-aged guys enjoying music but he’s been actually having fun with it and has been shining onstage.
It’s been a good alternative for him to be around that group of gamers too because they’re legit execs who carry out with artists like Alicia Keys and Ed Sheeran.
For him to spend that time cutting his enamel with those guys was actually key…and, of course, with a songwriter of my caliber (laughs).
What do the Matchbox guys do when you go on a solo tour?
I just pack them back in the crate and unpack them later.
No, drummer Paul Doucette does a lot of movie scoring. He does the music for the Apple TV show “For All Mankind.”
Kyle Cook, our guitarist, produces stuff in Nashville and was truly out touring with John Waite because they’re actually good pals.
And Pookie (bassist Brian Yale) manages his money nicely, so he just performs golf.
I’m not being glib but at the starting of me doing solo stuff, there was a huge level of competition between us as a band because it clearly meant that if I’m out doing something, we are not doing something.
Once we began to determine out the rhythm though, then it wasn’t such a huge deal. It just grew to become a workaround.
Nowadays, we sit down at the starting of every yr and determine what we need to do. Actually, we’re going to have that precise assembly on Zoom soon.
We do know that we need to play festivals and get ourselves in entrance of new people that aren’t acquainted with us.
I personally think 2023’s “Where The Light Goes” is Matchbox’s best file.
That’s most likely my favourite file since “More Than You Think You Are.”
We always take into account ourselves a stay band first. So we actually needed to attempt and get some of whatever that vitality is onto a file. We also actually needed to attempt and keep everything constructive and make something that was about unity and about love. In a method, we were making an attempt to shed that ’90s-manufactured angst and cynicism that can observe you if you’re not cautious.
Over 30 years of touring, what’s the craziest factor that’s occurred at a stay show of yours?
I was on the piano at one of these acoustic exhibits and enjoying a actually sluggish model of “3 a.m.” when a fistfight broke out in the center of the music.
People get engaged at exhibits. People have intercourse at exhibits. Luckily, as we got older, people stopped throwing underwear because you’re either too outdated or too younger to do it. I bear in mind the last time some younger lady put her high up, we were all like, “we have daughters. Don’t do that!”
What’s your relationship with “Smooth?”
It’s bizarre. It’s so all-encompassing. It’s the purpose why Carlos Santana and I are such good pals. We discuss at least once a week. If we’re on the highway at the same time, we discuss every evening and ship each other photos of the exhibits. We’re always sending each other music.
That being said, I’m also not going to go out and just be the man that wheels out and performs “Smooth” again.
The music has a life of its own. The other day I heard a model of Nuno Bettencourt enjoying it. I’ve heard a punk bands do it. I’ve heard nation artists do it. It’s cool to be a half of something like that but if that had been the only music that I’d ever finished, It would have eaten me up inside.
If I meet somebody anywhere in the world and they say, “oh, I love that song,” I’m stunned if they’re not speaking about “Smooth.”
Post-“Barbie,” have you discovered a new era of followers?
Yeah. Quite a bit of a lot of younger followers began exhibiting up to Matchbox exhibits in pink shirts that say “Push.”
Speaking of that, I truly not too long ago got a probability to discuss to Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach about “Push” at a “Jay Kelly” screening I went to with Mark Ronson.
They were like “how did you take the song being in the movie?” and I was like “I didn’t know I was the soundtrack for the patriarchy” but then after listening to Greta discuss about the music — who had a actual affection for “Push” growing up — she made me look at a character like Ken in a deeper method. He was younger, not that vibrant and didn’t know how to specific himself so he used songs like “Push” and I was like, “that was me in my early twenties.”
The only dangerous factor about the expertise was that it could have been a actually good profession alternative for Matchbox because it was such a huge factor but it occurred during the writers’ strike. So, we were on tour and weren’t allowed to discuss about it at all because we’re AFTRA. So all these people would need to do interviews and discuss about “Barbie” and we had to say “we can’t talk about Barbie” and they were like “OK, we’re good then.”
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Rob Thomas new music
On Sept. 5, Thomas launched his sixth studio album “All Night Days.”
As famous above, the 11-track file is an spectacular mishmash of sounds. Thomas embraces upbeat pop (“Hand In My Hand,” “Hard To Be Happy,” “Machine”), hard-charging rock (“All Night Days”), ebullient gospel (“I Believe It”), ’80s synth anthems (“Picture Perfect”), earthy soul (“No Good At Loving You”) and even throws in a few weak ballads (“Thrill Me,” “Losing My Mind,” “Back To The Start”).
Then, there’s the unclassifiable “Ghost,” which melds Latin horns and nimble industrial rock to create a utterly distinctive sound.
From monitor to monitor, the inventive singer-songwriter never fails to shock.
To hear for yourself, you can discover the sonically expansive “All Night Days” here.
Huge ’90s stars on tour in 2026
Yearning for the Beanie Baby period? Miss dial-up?
If so, here are just 5 of our favourite artists from method back before the flip of the Millennium who might be coming to a metropolis close to you these next few weeks.
• Cake
Who else is on the highway? Take a look at our record of all the largest artists on tour in 2026 to discover the show of your desires.
This article was written by Matt Levy, New York Post stay occasions reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the newest tour bulletins from your favourite musical artists and comedians, as nicely as Broadway openings, sporting occasions and more stay exhibits – and finds great ticket costs online. Since he began his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed a Bruce Springsteen live performance and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to identify a few. Please be aware that offers can expire, and all costs are subject to change.
