Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty

Date of Birth 14 February 1972, Landstuhl, West Germany
Birth Name Robert Kelly Thomas
Height 5' 9" (1.75 m)

He has been married to Marisol Thomas since October 2, 1999.
Robert Kelly Thomas was born February 14, 1972 in Landstuhl, West Germany, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, to Bill Thomas, a sergeant, and his wife Mamie.Thomas has an older half sister, Melissa, from his mother's previous marriage. The family returned to the United States when Thomas was six months old. His parents divorced when he was two years old. Thomas lived with his mother and sister.
Lead vocalist for Matchbox Twenty.
Has a son, Maison Avery William Thomas, (b. July 10, 1998), from a previous relationship. He grew up listening to country music and idolized the "big stars who lived ... hard lives", like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. Their stories inspired him to be a songwriter.

Thomas and his mother and sister moved to Sarasota, Florida when he was ten, then settled in the Orlando area the following year. Around this time, Thomas received his first musical instrument, a Casio keyboard. A friend taught him to play, and Thomas practiced by trying to reproduce the songs he heard on the radio. He also acquired a guitar with no strings, which he used as a prop while he pretended he was in a rock band.

His home life was not stable. Thomas describes his mother as an alcoholic who occasionally beat him.When Thomas was 12, his mother was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma and given only six months to live. His sister ran away from home to get married, leaving Thomas to care for their mother on his own.

He attended Lake Brantley High School in the Orlando suburb of Altamonte Springs. Thomas joined the choir in an unsuccessful attempt to attract the attention of a girl that he liked. His choir teacher told him to keep working, because she saw potential in him. To impress girls at parties, Thomas wrote and played music.

A few months before graduation, Thomas dropped out of high school, saying his "regular life was in such disarray that going seemed ridiculous".He later earned a GED. He was convicted of stealing a Camaro and spent two months in county jail when he was 17.For the next two or three years, Thomas was homeless.Occasionally he'd crash for a few days or weeks at the homes of various friends. At other times, he would hitchhike around Florida and South Carolina.

Soon after getting out of jail, Thomas connected with several local musicians.He played in a series of cover bands and began writing songs in earnest. Thomas said that "in songwriting I felt special for the first time. And all I wanted to do was get out of Florida."

A mutual friend introduced him to model Marisol Maldonado at an afterparty in Toronto in late 1997. They both claim it was love at first sight. Thomas said that, ""I knew the second I kissed her that I would never, ever kiss another person." As he was in the midst of an international tour, their initial courtship was via phone. Maldonado was at first reluctant to date Thomas, unsure if she could handle being the wife of a rock star. When he returned to the United States, they went on their first date, to a music festival in Boston. That night, he told her he would marry her, and a month later he proposed. They were married on October 2, 1998, at Serletic's ranch in California. Their wedding was broadcast on ABC's Celebrity Weddings in Style.