Rob Thomas Talks Leaving Atlantic for Universal Republic

It isn’t just the music that’s new for Rob Thomas as he gears up to release All Night Days, his sixth solo album. The 11-song set, coming Sept. 5 and preceded by first single “Hard To Be Happy”/”Thrill Me Now,” will be on Universal Records after Thomas spent 30 years with Atlantic, on his own and with his band Matchbox Twenty. Thomas’ move comes in the wake of a seismic leadership change at Atlantic Music Group that includes the departure of chairperson/CEO Julie Greenwald and other key executives.

“It says a lot when I think I’m the person that’s been at Atlantic longer than anybody else in the building,” Thomas tells Billboard via Zoom. “As we got this record together I was literally having a conversation with the guys at Atlantic Records. We had the team on a Zoom and we’re talking about the marketing, we’re talking about the single, ‘This is gonna be this’ and ‘this is gonna be this.’ Then three days later I got an email…that basically came with an ultimatum for this record: ‘We’d like to restructure your deal. We’d like to do this or this or this.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to do that,’ and they said, ‘Well, how about if we just give you your record? It’s yours, and we can walk away free and clear.’ I was pleased; I was only bummed that it didn’t happen sooner.

“Luckily, as soon as the ink was dry on the docu-sign, I told Monte Lipman over at Universal Republic, and literally in a minute I got a text back that said, ‘Welcome to Republic,’ and that started my new life on Universal.”

Thomas has no hard feelings towards Atlantic, where he released five solo studio albums and another six with Matchbox Twenty. And he’s relieved about the lack of drama in securing a new deal. “It was a very short period of worry — worry’s not even a good word,” says Thomas. “I’m one of the only artists I know who after 30 years has been on the same label and hadn’t made a move to something independent or a different label. (All Night Days) was very important to me. I knew I had made something that was special, something I think my fans are really, really gonna love, so you want to make sure this is gonna have a chance to be heard. That’s where Universal came in with a f–kin’ cape and saved the day.”

Thomas has been working on All Night Days, co-produced by Gregg Wattenberg and Grant Michaels, since during Covid. He had intended to put it out during the early 2020s as the follow-up to 2019’s Chip Tooth Smile (and 2021’s Something About Christmas Time). But as Matchbox Twenty’s planned tour continued to be postponed, the group decided to make its first new album in 11 years, 2023’s Wattenberg-produced Where the Light Goes.

“On that record there’s maybe three songs that would’ve been on the solo record, and then two or three songs that didn’t make the Matchbox record that moved their way over to (All Night Days),” Thomas says. Matchbox Twenty’s other members, in fact, appear on the solo album track “I Believe It,” which drummer Paul Doucette didn’t want to include on the band album. “I had a long time to curate this record; someone asked me the inception date for ‘Hard to Be Happy’ and I looked at it and it was 2020. It was five years ago I had started writing that song. I had more time to sit with those songs and write better songs and go, ‘Let’s replace that with this.’ I think it became a better record for it.”

Thomas wrote “Hard to Be Happy” with Todd Clark and Derek Fuhrmann and says it was “born out of a joke” during a Covid Zoom session. “We’d all been writing a bunch of depressing sh-t, and we were just like, ‘It’s hard to write a happy song. It’s hard to be happy,’” he says. “So we started with that line, ‘It’s hard to be happy,’ and we wrote, I think, what’s musically one of the happiest sounding songs I’ve written, ever. It’s very positive, very fun. I think there’s elements of Harry Nilsson and ‘lime in the coconut’ going on, some weird Caribbean vibe that mixes with a little George Michael ‘Freedom’ and a little David Bowie ‘Young Americans.’ All that was in there.”

Thomas collaborated on the B-side, “Thrill Me,” with Tim Lopez from Plain White T’s. “It’s a love song that couldn’t have been written by somebody not my age,” Thomas explains. “This is a song you play at your recommitment ceremony after 30 years of marriage. It’s a song about how after all this time the other person still excites you and still thrills you.”

Thomas expects to release other singles before All Night Days’ release. (The title came from a conversation with a friend in which Thomas said, “I think my all-night days are over.”) He’ll be previewing songs during his All Night Days Tour, which begins Aug. 1 in Atlanta. “I haven’t gone out solo since 2019,” he notes. “It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to have a lot of fun with all these other songs here in solo world. And it’s the 20th anniversary of the first solo record, so it seems this is a perfect time to go out.” The touring band, which also played on most of All Night Days, will include Thomas’ son Maison Eudy on guitar

“It’s a weird thing to think it’s been 30 years with (Matchbox), 20 years solo,” says Thomas, who anticipates some special performances with the band for next year’s anniversary, followed by a full-scale tour during 2027. “Everything about it feels simultaneously like it’s happened forever and it just started a couple days ago. Every now and then it just pops up on you; there’s certain hard truths when we look in the mirror, or that our knees are telling us at certain times. But otherwise, creatively, you just feel like there’s gonna be something really great around the bend if I just keep working at it. There’s gonna be something around the corner that’s gonna be great.”

The track list for All Night Days includes:

Thomas’ All Night Days Tour dates include:
Aug 1- Atlanta, GA – Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park
Aug 2 – Jacksonville, FL – Daily’s Place
Aug 3 – Boca Raton, FL – Mizner Park Amphitheater
Aug 5 – Nashville, TN – Ascend Amphitheater
Aug 6 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater
Aug 8 – Richmond, VA – Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront
Aug 9 – Philadelphia, PA – TD Pavilion at the Mann
Aug 10 – Washington, DC – The Theater at MGM National Harbor
Aug 12 – New York, NY – Rooftop Pier 17
Aug 13 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
Aug 15 – Boston, MA – Leader Bank Pavilion
Aug 16 – Bridgeport, CT – Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
Aug 18 – Dayton, OH – Rose Music Center @ The Heights
Aug 20 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Aug 22 – Indianapolis, IN – Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park
Aug 23 – Cincinnati, OH – PNC Pavilion at Riverbend Music Center
Aug 24 – Detroit, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill
Aug 26 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
Aug 27 – Kansas City, MO – Starlight Theatre
Aug 29 – Irving, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Aug 30 – Houston, TX – Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
Sept 2 – Denver, CO – Bellco Theatre
Sept 4 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
Sept 5 – Las Vegas, NV – Fontainebleau
Sept 6 – Los Angeles, CA – YouTube Theater
Oct 24 – Perth, AU – PCEC Riverside Theatre
Oct 25 – Perth, AU – PCEC Riverside Theatre
Oct 27 – Adelaide, AU – AEC Theatre
Oct 29 – Melbourne, AU – Forum
Oct 30 – Melbourne, AU – Forum
Nov 3 – Sydney, AU – Enmore Theatre
Nov 4 – Sydney, AU – Enmore Theatre
Nov 8 – Brisbane, AU – Sandstone Point
Nov 11 – Auckland, AU – KTK Theatre
Nov 13 – Christchurch, NZ – Te Pae
Nov 15 – Wellington, NZ – Michael Fowler Centre