Announcer: Celebrating 10 years of concerts, THE TOYOTA CONCERT SERIES on TODAY. Choose any direction as long as it's moving forward.
KATIE COURIC, co-host:
Now we're going to have a little singing in the rain, literally. The moment you've been waiting for. Singing his new hit song, "Lonely No More," ladies and gentlemen, Rob Thomas.
(Rob Thomas performs "Lonely No More")
COURIC: More from Rob Thomas in a moment. But first, this is TODAY on NBC.
Mr. ROB THOMAS ("Something To Be"): Thank you.
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COURIC: He picked up three Grammys and sold millions of albums as the front man for the hit band Matchbox 20, now Rob Thomas can add another notch to his belt. His solo CD, "Something to Be," debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. This is very exciting.
Hey, Rob. How are you? Nice to see you.
Mr. THOMAS: Thank you.
COURIC: Of course, you've got so many fans who love your solo work, but also love your work with Matchbox 20, and I guess they all want to know, and we mentioned it earlier, this doesn't mean that Matchbox 20 is toast, right?
Mr. THOMAS: No, no, no. You know, out--out of the four of us in the band, three of us are working on projects right now. So I think this is just something that we all needed to do so that the next Matchbox record really felt good to us.
COURIC: Yeah, tell me what made you--what motivated you to go out on your own? Why did you know it was sort of time to do this?
Mr. THOMAS: Yeah, I think we all just had a feeling of, like, after 10 years of doing the same thing in the same context, it feels really good to go out. And all of a sudden, you're doing the same thing but you're doing it differently.
COURIC: Right.
Mr. THOMAS: You're doing it with different people. It's just--it's a new source of inspiration for us that we can bring back...
COURIC: Right, and it's sort of a great creative outlet for you...
Mr. THOMAS: Exactly.
COURIC: ...just to try something new, and it kind of recharges your battery, right?
Mr. THOMAS: Yeah, I hope so.
COURIC: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Tell me a little bit about the album, because I know you've said it's sort of moody. It's got to indicate, sort of, things that you're going through in your life. Everything OK?
Mr. THOMAS: Yeah, so far, so good. You know, I think--like, every time you make a record...(unintelligible)...a new album, but it's kind of a mosaic of--of where you are at that time, you know?
COURIC: Right.
Mr. THOMAS: And that's what this is. Half of it's very, very happy, and half of it's very, very sad, and that's pretty much, I guess, where everybody is.
COURIC: And one thing I really admire about you, Rob, you g--you put yourself out there and get involved in charitable work. You're very active in Save the Music, which, of course, encourages music education...
Mr. THOMAS: Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
COURIC: ...in the schools across the country, and it's something that's being cut when budgets...
Mr. THOMAS: It's the first thing that gets cut, yeah.
COURIC: ...right, exactly. And then you have another organization called Sidewalk Angels Foundation.
Mr. THOMAS: Mm-hmm.
COURIC: What is that?
Mr. THOMAS: Yeah, my wife started that as an idea for us to kind of help some of the smaller organizations that don't have the benefit of thousands and thousands of dollars for marketing.
COURIC: Right.
Mr. THOMAS: It's just that we can use our influence, as many people that we know, and--and just try and piggy-back onto them and get awareness out.
COURIC: So you're really spreading the wealth, literally, to a lot of deserving groups that are doing great work but aren't getting much attention for it.
Mr. THOMAS: Trying very hard. Yeah, trying very hard on that.
COURIC: That's such a nice thing for you to do, and I--Mir--I know Marisol was going to come this morning, but she decided to stay home, which I think might have been...
Mr. THOMAS: Hi, baby!
COURIC: Anyway, so what are you going to sing for us now?
Mr. THOMAS: We're going to sing our next single off the record. It's called "This is How a Heart Breaks."
COURIC: OK, great. Do you want to keep my umbrella?
Mr. THOMAS: No, it's all yours.
COURIC: OK, thanks Rob. Good to see you. Thanks, guys.
(Rob Thomas performs "This is How a Heart Breaks")
Mr. THOMAS: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
COURIC: Soggy people out on the plaza. We'll hear more--one more song from Rob a little bit later. But first, these messages and your local news.