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 Rob Thomas was born February 14, 1972, on an Army base in Landstuhl, Germany. His parents divorced, and the ex-Army brat spent most of his childhood in South Carolina and Florida. He dropped out of high school at 17, and bounced around the South singing in pickup rock bands before landing in Orlando in 1993. There he helped form Tabitha's Secret, and the group had some regional success before Thomas, bassist Brian Yale, and drummer Paul Doucette left to form Matchbox Twenty with guitarists Adam Gaynor and Kyle Cook.
Their debut, Yourself or Someone Like You, had gone five times platinum by 1998, and it established them as superstars even if Thomas wasn't individually well known. That all changed with a song he co-wrote for the Carlos Santana album Supernatural. "Smooth" was ubiquitous in 1999, and it made Thomas a star. The track took home three Grammys including Song of the Year. He also married model Marisol Maldonado.
Mad Season (2000) and More Than You Think You Are (2002) continued Matchbox Twenty's success, but after years of touring for both records, the bandmembers decided they needed a break, and Thomas used the hiatus to write and record his first solo album. When "Lonely No More" debuted in early 2005, its sleek and funky dance-pop sound was closer to Justin Timberlake than Matchbox, and it set up the April release of the chart-topper Something to Be.
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