Rob Thomas' Unusual Journey: Unapologetic Pop Star Opens Up

There are lots of things you likely don't know about Matchbox Twenty and solo singer Rob Thomas — that he survived a violent redneck childhood, that his weed-dealer grandmother hired a serial killer to off an ex-boyfriend, that he thinks Third Eyed Blind's Stephan Jenkins is "really just a cock." As Thomas releases new solo LP Cradlesong, Erik Hedegaard gets one music's bona fide pop stars to peel back his mellow nice-guy exterior and go beyond "being one-dimensional," as Thomas puts it, in a revealing profile in the new issue of Rolling Stone.

Grab the issue for the full story, and take a look back how far Thomas has come — his career, in photos:
• Rob Thomas' Journey: From Matchbox Twenty Frontman to Chart-Topping Solo Artist

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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
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  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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