Cortney Harding and Monica Herrera, N.Y.
Rob Thomas kicks off support of his June 30 solo album, "Cradlesong," by premiering lead single "Her Diamonds" on Billboard.com, planning a North American fall tour, and lending another new song to the NBA playoffs.
Dates for Thomas' fall trek will be announced this summer, but fans will be able to catch the Matchbox Twenty frontman performing on NBC's "Today" show summer concert series on July 3, three days after "Cradlesong" is released.
Rob Thomas (above) was influenced by global sounds on new album "Cradlesong." Single, "Her Diamonds" (cover shown below) is streaming at the top of this article.
Like Kanye West, Thomas also recently lent a song to the NBA for its 2009 playoff season. On April 19, the NBA began using “Give Me The Meltdown,” also from "Cradlesong," as the music bed for select playoffs promos airing on ABC and ESPN on April 19.
Thomas’ first solo album, “...Something to Be,” debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 in 2005 and has sold 1,587,000 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. He also co-wrote the 1999 mega-hit “Smooth,” which Billboard last year named the No. 2 Hot 100 song of all time. Matchbox Twenty has sold north of 16 million albums. But Thomas says he works hard to not let his success affect his everyday life. “It's a cliché, but I try to keep the focus on the music,” the singer tells Billboard in a cover story available on Friday (April 24). “I'm not going to move to L.A. and go out every night."
Collaborations with South American and African percussionists had a strong influence on the global rhythms included on "Cradlesong," Thomas told Billboard.com last fall. "We started off with the idea of doing a newer version of [Paul Simon's] "Rhythm of the Saints," Thomas said. "And that kinda carried us a long way through. It gave us a whole new bed to work with, like 'How do I get my pop sensibility around this and work it into that?' It was a lot of fun.”
Thomas discusses his love for Twitter, his iPhone app plans, and why he’s happier hanging with his dogs than hitting the Sunset Strip in depth in Friday's Billboard cover story.
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