Ask singer/songwriter Rob Thomas what his musical guilty pleasure is and you’ll get his patented response: honesty and humor.

“I think I own up to all my guilty pleasures,” the matchbox twenty front man said via telephone. “I’m probably somebody’s guilty pleasure, so it’s really all subjective.”

It’s easy to picture Thomas, 34, chatting while stretching out in his tour bus, a nearby iPod playing (his recent play lists are mostly jazz and pop, he said). The rising pop star has a relaxed sincerity, a trait that hasn’t changed since his band hit the big time in 1996 with Yourself or Someone Like You. Fast forward 10 years and several albums later to 2006 and you’ll find a similar man behind a much bigger career. Since his debut solo release …Something to Be came out in April 2005, Thomas has taken his new, pop-tinged material and hit the road alone. Well, sort of.

“When you say ‘alone,’ that’s really in a broad sense,” he said of his current tour with opening acts Jewel and Toby Lightman. As it stands now, Thomas has a good crew to back him up, including his wife Marisol, managers, producers, band members. The moral support of his matchbox twenty band mates also makes a huge difference in his life, he said.

“I don’t think I could have been solo 10 years ago and really been able to handle it,” he said. “Making music and writing with other people and working with them, it’s all been kind of a prep for me. To do a project like this and stand behind it, it was a lot easier to have four or five guys behind you.”

Thomas’s confidence has made all the difference in the success of …Something to Be. After its debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, the album’s three singles, “This Is How a Heart Breaks,” “Lonely No More” and “Ever the Same” have found ample play on radio waves nationwide. Thomas said he is proud of the album’s success, but after a year’s worth of shows and promoting, it’s nearly time for a new project.

“When you make a record, you’re doing the best you can do for that record,” he said. “You give everything you have. You’re evolving into a better musician, so the person at the end of the process, by the time it’s on the radio, is looking back and can already see what to do next. You see what you can do better, and that’s how you grow.”

What that next project will be, however, Thomas said he can only speculate. He already has several things on the back burner, within music and outside of it. His charity works include the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE), which aids workers displaced by 9-11 and schools ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, Pets Alive (a no-kill animal shelter in Middletown, New York) and Sidewalk Angels, which he and his wife founded. Career-wise, Thomas said he plans to start a record label with a close friend (the specifics will be released, he said, when they nail down the details). There also will be another matchbox twenty album in the next year. Thomas contends that it would be nice to match his three Grammy wins from 1999 with a few more recognitions, but that isn’t his priority.

“There are so many things in music I still want to do,” he said. “If you win an award, it’s really cool, but the goal isn’t to win awards. So many bands out there don’t win awards and aren’t well-known, but that doesn’t make their music any less valid. I think your only job as a musician is to make a record that’s better than the last one. That’s really the only job I have.”
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Kate Lohnes covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4427. For this and other local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.

Rob Thomas
ALSO FEATURING: Jewel, Toby Lightman
WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Dodge Arena, 2600 N. 10th St.,  Hidalgo
COST: $79.50, $59.50 and $29.50, plus convenience fees
FOR MORE INFO: Call Dodge Arena at (956) 843-6688, or (866) RIO-TIXX, or visit www.dodgearena.com