Speaker 1: Merry Christmas, Happy holidays everyone. I hope this holiday season
Speaker 1: has been a season filled with joy for you. I
Speaker 1: hope you have been able to connect heart to heart
Speaker 1: with family, with friends, and I hope you are feeling
Speaker 1: all the fields of the holidays. Maybe you've been baking cookies,
Speaker 1: maybe you've done a little holiday crafting. I hope you've
Speaker 1: been busy wrapping presents, window shopping. I hope you've driven
Speaker 1: through a neighborhood that's all lit up with Christmas lights
Speaker 1: and the magic of the season. And I hope while
Speaker 1: you're busy at all these tasks, you found yourself humming
Speaker 1: a familiar Christmas carol or one of your favorite holiday tunes.
Speaker 1: There are so many, so so many holiday songs and
Speaker 1: holiday traditions that I at absolutely love. Tree hunting with
Speaker 1: my kids and my grandkids, tree trimming, making and eating
Speaker 1: special foods we only have during the holidays, and we
Speaker 1: have a lot more of during the holidays. Wearing our
Speaker 1: footing pajamas on Christmas morning, having our annual scavenger hunt
Speaker 1: every year. I say, this is it. I'm not doing
Speaker 1: this much work ever again, but it's something we so
Speaker 1: look forward to. These are some of the things I
Speaker 1: look forward to all year long, but Christmas music probably
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things I cherish. And you know what,
Speaker 1: it's also one thing right up there with faith, hope
Speaker 1: and love that can never be taken from us, no
Speaker 1: matter how bad times might get, no matter how dark
Speaker 1: the winter. Maybe there is Christmas music songs to lift
Speaker 1: our spirits. You might have noticed a lot of shortages
Speaker 1: on the store shelves or found something you wanted to
Speaker 1: purchase was on back back, back order, but thankfully music
Speaker 1: is not in those categories. New music and Christmas music
Speaker 1: especially as an abundance this year. Many artists say they
Speaker 1: were inspired to create new, hopeful holiday music after enduring
Speaker 1: the socially distance holiday season last year. Music was one
Speaker 1: thing they could count on to carry them through and
Speaker 1: they wanted to share it. They wanted to make more
Speaker 1: good music. We've seen new holiday albums from Kelly Clarkson,
Speaker 1: Norah Jones, Brett Young, Pentatonics, Darren Chris and there's a
Speaker 1: beautifully remastered album of Nat King Cole songs too. Some
Speaker 1: of these newcomers have been added to the Christmas music
Speaker 1: rotation on My Delilah Radio show, and a lot of
Speaker 1: them have been added to my personal playlist. But wait,
Speaker 1: there's more. Another beloved artist released his first holiday album
Speaker 1: this year, The Oh So Smooth. That's a little hint there,
Speaker 1: Mr Smooth. Three time Grammy Award winner Rob Thomas. He
Speaker 1: has given us Something about Christmas Time, a new Christmas
Speaker 1: album with ten tracks and all most of them are
Speaker 1: brand new, original summer covers, and some are wonderful duets.
Speaker 1: My favorite has to be small Town Christmas. I love
Speaker 1: it because even though I love visiting the Big Apple
Speaker 1: at Christmas time, I am a small town girl through
Speaker 1: and through. We'll have an opportunity to catch up with
Speaker 1: Rob Thomas and get all the details about this new album,
Speaker 1: all the wonderful things he's been up to. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you, he and his wife have a heart, such
Speaker 1: a heart for kids and dogs and creatures. Right now, though,
Speaker 1: I'm going to sing the praises of a sponsor that
Speaker 1: helps me be able to have these great conversations and
Speaker 1: to be able to share them with you. If you
Speaker 1: have been listening to my voice on the radio four years,
Speaker 1: then you know that I have been around on the
Speaker 1: radio four years. Off the radio, I'm taking care of
Speaker 1: my kids, taking care of my dogs, riding my horses,
Speaker 1: growing plants in my gardens. And you know what it hurts.
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Speaker 1: dot com forward slash love to place your order and
Speaker 1: to discover all the wonderful goodness of Omega XL. Hey,
Speaker 1: how you doing. I'm awesome? How are you robbed? I'm wonderful.
Speaker 1: It's nice to see you. I wish we could do
Speaker 1: these somehow, like put them on our website and actually
Speaker 1: use the video because you're so dank cute. Oh, I'll
Speaker 1: listen to you. Please tell me more. Is that your house?
Speaker 1: Are you in your home? Yeah? This is my studio,
Speaker 1: so like everything here on this side is all uh
Speaker 1: like the living portion of the studio and the hanging portion,
Speaker 1: and then everything that you don't see is the working portion,
Speaker 1: is the equipment? Yeah? Same here? Do you notice mine
Speaker 1: is a little more um, how do we say this nicely? Uh?
Speaker 1: Cluttered and disorganized than yours? That's okay. You know they
Speaker 1: say that geniuses are cluttered and disorganized, Well then I
Speaker 1: am pretty damn smart I am, because cluttered and disorganized
Speaker 1: only for me, Like I know where stuff is, and
Speaker 1: when somebody tries to organize me, unless it's my engineer Ryan,
Speaker 1: who's here in the studio with me, When somebody tries
Speaker 1: to organize me, I get so flustered because I'm like
Speaker 1: I always keep my extra pins piled up in that
Speaker 1: coffee cup. My mother had O c D. Right, and
Speaker 1: she was very meticulous about everything, and a lot of
Speaker 1: that rubbed off on me in this senseance like I
Speaker 1: was the only kid that you know that would spend
Speaker 1: early Saturday afternoons cleaning his room and rearranging it and
Speaker 1: getting excited by it. But I will say, hold on,
Speaker 1: like if you look over there, like see the way,
Speaker 1: like all that mess over there. Huh yeah, Okay, I
Speaker 1: do have some schedule old chaos in my life. Now
Speaker 1: I feel now I can breathe, though, since you showed
Speaker 1: me that my wife hates that part of my of
Speaker 1: my life every time. You know, the studio is the
Speaker 1: area where like anything that we get that she doesn't
Speaker 1: want in our home, it's like, oh, that would be
Speaker 1: great for your studio. That would look nice down there,
Speaker 1: relegated to the studio? Are we talking like the coffee
Speaker 1: table made out of antique ship wheel? If I had
Speaker 1: one of those, that's where we go. Yeah. So, Rob Thomas,
Speaker 1: let's just talk for a moment about your wife, because
Speaker 1: who she's a smoke show, right, She's beautiful. You've done good.
Speaker 1: A We just celebrated twenty two years married on October Wow. Wow, second, congratulations.
Speaker 1: My anniversary is at the end of the month. We've
Speaker 1: been together sixteen years but married since ian. We we
Speaker 1: got married the year after we met we jumped right in,
Speaker 1: and you were young and you married like a rock
Speaker 1: star supermodel, and she married a rock star. So I'm
Speaker 1: sure everybody was thinking, Ah, these two, they're never gonna
Speaker 1: make it. Yeah, I mean everything about it, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you meet somebody and then a couple
Speaker 1: of months later you're telling everybody that you're gonna get married.
Speaker 1: Because I told her on our first date the song
Speaker 1: that she was going to walk down the aisle to
Speaker 1: when we got married. What what song had you picked
Speaker 1: out for your wedding on your first date to Marrison?
Speaker 1: It was the Nearness of You? But the version by
Speaker 1: Keith Richards And did you actually use that in your wedding?
Speaker 1: Let me tell you a little story. Yes we did,
Speaker 1: but not only did we, We didn't think that version
Speaker 1: of the time because remember there was no YouTube, there
Speaker 1: was no that stuff. You couldn't find it right it was,
Speaker 1: it didn't exist. It only existed with Keith Richards and
Speaker 1: he was holding onto it because he had done it
Speaker 1: in a film bas Yacht and he and so we
Speaker 1: were going to use the Shirley Bassie version. And we
Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know. She didn't know until she
Speaker 1: stood up and started to walk down the aisle that
Speaker 1: a friend of ours that works with the Stones got
Speaker 1: a cassette tape of the Keith Richard's version from Keith Richards,
Speaker 1: but he had to bring it to the wedding, play it,
Speaker 1: and then take it back to Keith. But I didn't
Speaker 1: know until I saw her walk down the island that
Speaker 1: version started playing. So then we both started We just
Speaker 1: both started crying immediately. That might be one of the
Speaker 1: sweetest wedding stories I've ever heard of my life. It
Speaker 1: was so it was so amazing because when I met her,
Speaker 1: we had met for like five minutes, and I got
Speaker 1: her phone number, and then I went to Europe for
Speaker 1: like a month and a half and we just talked
Speaker 1: on the phone every night. She was in college. Now,
Speaker 1: was that back when you were like rock Star and
Speaker 1: with Matchbox Twnny, Well, yeah, I mean, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: still with Matchbox twenty, but this was like, you know,
Speaker 1: the early days. Like I like to think at that time,
Speaker 1: I was more famous than she thought that I was,
Speaker 1: but I was less famous than I thought that I was.
Speaker 1: That makes sense, and so I like that. I like
Speaker 1: that I thought I was like, I've got a giant
Speaker 1: hit song on MTV right now, and she's like, you've
Speaker 1: got one song out, you know, like it was, She's like,
Speaker 1: come on, and so uh when But when I met her,
Speaker 1: we talked for a month and a half and so
Speaker 1: we really got to know each other before we had
Speaker 1: like a date. And so when we had our first date,
Speaker 1: it was, I was a cheap day. It was. It
Speaker 1: was cheap too, because I brought her to a festival
Speaker 1: that I was playing in Boston, and so at the
Speaker 1: end we she she flew out and she was going
Speaker 1: to take the bus back with us to go back
Speaker 1: to New York. And uh, we were sitting on the
Speaker 1: bus watching Basque Yacht, the movie Basquiat that that song
Speaker 1: came on, and I said, this is gonna be the
Speaker 1: song that you walked down the aisle at our wedding too,
Speaker 1: on your first date. Yeah, and she didn't run, so
Speaker 1: I knew that she was a keeper. That's because you're
Speaker 1: pretty damn cute. I was really cute then, you're really
Speaker 1: cute now. But yeah, we were. We were all crushing
Speaker 1: on you back then. We were all so cute when
Speaker 1: we were young. All you want to hear a really
Speaker 1: horrible wedding story. Yeah, yeah, it's very funny now. But
Speaker 1: my first husband married him, you know, when you were
Speaker 1: probably not even a twinkle in your mom's I uh,
Speaker 1: I met my first husband, who got has since called home.
Speaker 1: But I met him at the Kingdom when the Kingdome
Speaker 1: existed and we were there for a radio event. We
Speaker 1: both were in radio, and unbeknownst to either one of us,
Speaker 1: when we met, I had been following him for like
Speaker 1: ten years of my career, like I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I was twenty one years old, and I had been
Speaker 1: listening to him on the radio since I was a teenager,
Speaker 1: since I was like thirteen years old. He was ten
Speaker 1: years older than me, and kind of like with with
Speaker 1: you guys, it was, you know, love at first sight,
Speaker 1: and we fell in love. And two months into our relationship,
Speaker 1: we decided to Elope and we got to Marino, Nevada,
Speaker 1: and I chickened out. I was like, no, I want
Speaker 1: to have a real wedding. I want to wear a
Speaker 1: wedding dress, and so we came back. So you didn't,
Speaker 1: Like some people would do the wedding and then do
Speaker 1: the ceremony anyway, but you just didn't. You didn't want
Speaker 1: to get married until you were married, right right, And
Speaker 1: so we came back and I made a wedding dress,
Speaker 1: and I made my bridesmaid stresses and we had a
Speaker 1: little wedding. Um only had eighteen people there at a
Speaker 1: park in Seattle, and his brother was in charge of
Speaker 1: the music. So I had given him a mix tape
Speaker 1: that had the song was always in't Forever by heat Wave,
Speaker 1: So that was going to be what what I was
Speaker 1: going to walk into. And my older brother was the
Speaker 1: only member of my family to come. My family was
Speaker 1: not happy that I was getting married to this person.
Speaker 1: And we're outside the little park waiting for the music
Speaker 1: to start, and Matt's like, come on, let's just walk in.
Speaker 1: Because my husband's brother was messing with the music player.
Speaker 1: We had two little speakers set up, and then he
Speaker 1: hits play and instead of heat Wave always in Forever,
Speaker 1: he had put the song get down on It, And
Speaker 1: and that is awesome to be fairly, let me get
Speaker 1: down on It's a really good song. Yeah, yeah, nothing
Speaker 1: says romance like getting down on it. How long about
Speaker 1: before you lost your How long were you guys married?
Speaker 1: We were not married very long long enough to create
Speaker 1: a beautiful life. We had a gorgeous son. Our son
Speaker 1: is thirties seven now I just turned thirty seven. I
Speaker 1: have a three year old from right before I met
Speaker 1: my wife, So my oldest biological he's my oldest biological
Speaker 1: My oldest child because I have many adopted children, is
Speaker 1: um just a little north of the big four. Oh
Speaker 1: and my youngest child, who is in the other room
Speaker 1: watching Veggie Tales, is five. That's a gap. That's a gap,
Speaker 1: but there's actually never been a gap. Like if there
Speaker 1: had ever been a gap, I couldn't do this, but
Speaker 1: I just kept adopting. I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: who have kids and then get custody of their grandkids
Speaker 1: or have a second family, it's kind of awkward if
Speaker 1: they've gotten like ten years or more without changing. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: because you get you get used to kind of being alone,
Speaker 1: you know, like you get used to a rhythm, you
Speaker 1: get That's why I think it's harder. You know, like
Speaker 1: for guys that are there, they're like in the mid forties,
Speaker 1: they've never gotten married, and then you know they might
Speaker 1: just stay that way because you get kind of set
Speaker 1: in your ways. Yeah, and and stubborn. Once you get
Speaker 1: used to that freedom it's hard to wrap your mind
Speaker 1: around going to cub scout meetings or sleeping, you know,
Speaker 1: in a tent with twelve others small children. Well that's like,
Speaker 1: so my wife and I, like, we don't have any kids.
Speaker 1: We that was you know, when I first met her,
Speaker 1: that was kind of that was a big deal, was
Speaker 1: the you know, oh my god, we're in love. We've
Speaker 1: never felt like this before. By the way, full disclosure,
Speaker 1: I do have a baby on the way, you know,
Speaker 1: Like that was that was a hard thing for her
Speaker 1: to get over because that was that wasn't the way
Speaker 1: that she saw her life. I mean, she was this
Speaker 1: model who was going to college. She didn't see herself
Speaker 1: living on the road. She didn't see herself with some money,
Speaker 1: who already had a kid, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like none of those things. I mean now, twenty three
Speaker 1: years later, we're like the most stable relationship he's ever known,
Speaker 1: you know, and we're all you know, we're all a family.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he just graduated from college. So co parenting
Speaker 1: worked out well. There wasn't like drama. Yeah, there there
Speaker 1: was some There was some drama obviously, But how did
Speaker 1: how did baby Mama take to finding out you were
Speaker 1: in love and marrying. Well we worked together that you know,
Speaker 1: like we that was that was a short lived. Um.
Speaker 1: You don't have to explain, Delilah. There's just there's a
Speaker 1: lot of nice people on the road. When you were young,
Speaker 1: there was just a lot of nice people who were
Speaker 1: generous with their time. So let's talk Rob Thomas about
Speaker 1: your music and about the Christmas album that Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: nobody warned me some of its sad. It's just like
Speaker 1: an emotional roller coaster. You got joy, you got real,
Speaker 1: you got love, you got family, but then you got
Speaker 1: like you got really real. I mean, I think that's
Speaker 1: what the holidays make you feel, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: like all of those emotions they come around it. It's
Speaker 1: a you're an easy laugh and an easy cry during
Speaker 1: the holidays and and at any given moment you don't
Speaker 1: know which one you're gonna which one you're gonna run to. Well,
Speaker 1: I loved it because you know, my show is a
Speaker 1: request and dedication show. That's what I do right all night.
Speaker 1: I play songs that lyrically fit with your situation. And
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is when you're alone at
Speaker 1: Christmas or when your son is in the military and
Speaker 1: you don't get to Sam, or your daughter is or
Speaker 1: they're away at college and right now you can't afford
Speaker 1: to fly them home. There's not really a standard Christmas
Speaker 1: song outside of you know, I'll have a blue Christmas
Speaker 1: without you that I can play, or yeah, you're tired.
Speaker 1: You get tired of all of these people telling you
Speaker 1: to be happy, you know, like are even worse telling
Speaker 1: you that you're supposed to be happy, Like somehow there's
Speaker 1: a deficit in your part because what you're going through
Speaker 1: doesn't fit with, you know, with the idea of what's
Speaker 1: supposed to be happening in the holidays. You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know when you're grieving for me anyway, Man, it
Speaker 1: hits hard, But do you feel it? Do you find
Speaker 1: that that like the first you know, it's still raw
Speaker 1: and numb the first time, and it feels like your
Speaker 1: heart is getting filaid, And then maybe the second time
Speaker 1: and the third time, and then little by little it
Speaker 1: starts to feel like a connection to them, opposed to
Speaker 1: making you think about their absence and makes you think
Speaker 1: about their when they were present. Very much so. The
Speaker 1: best illustration I saw was you know, a hole in
Speaker 1: your heart and people used to think that as time
Speaker 1: went on that whole shrinks. It doesn't. Your heart grows
Speaker 1: around it, you know, your heart enlarges around it. And
Speaker 1: what you just spoke of those traditions that the first
Speaker 1: or second year, those traditions definitely just had me on
Speaker 1: the floor, slayed me. But now they are such a connection.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, because you know, grief isn't something that that
Speaker 1: that wanes and goes away over time. It's just something
Speaker 1: that becomes a part of you. And so that's that's different.
Speaker 1: It becomes a part of your d n A as
Speaker 1: opposed to something that you're just waiting to go away,
Speaker 1: you know, like that it doesn't really do that. You're
Speaker 1: you're You're forever a different person. Every loss it is,
Speaker 1: it's definitely, you know, is a part of you. There's
Speaker 1: my wife and our favorite poet is uh and the
Speaker 1: Saint Vincent Malay and Uh, she you know, she has
Speaker 1: it that you know, like this poetus is. I think
Speaker 1: we're like where you where you left. There's a hole
Speaker 1: that I spend all my days walking around and trying
Speaker 1: not to fall into. I'm paraphrasing it badly, but it's
Speaker 1: but it's like that's that's just kind of what it
Speaker 1: feels like. That's exactly what it feels like. So one
Speaker 1: of the songs that makes me so happy, that doesn't
Speaker 1: file at me but me but makes me smile. And
Speaker 1: I you know, I hit replay like three times. I
Speaker 1: listened to it while I was here in the studio
Speaker 1: when I was going through through the whole album is
Speaker 1: the song the small Town Christmas. Oh thanks? So where
Speaker 1: did did you grow up in a small town? Where
Speaker 1: did that come from? Well, you know, it's funny because
Speaker 1: I did, Like I grew up in South Carolina in
Speaker 1: Lake City, which is a really small tobacco town. Uh,
Speaker 1: even on a good map it's hard to find. But
Speaker 1: but I spent the last fifteen years here in Westchester
Speaker 1: in New York, and that to me is like with
Speaker 1: like if if you you know, west Such is about
Speaker 1: forty five minutes north of the city, but once you
Speaker 1: get up here, it looks like a postcard. And especially
Speaker 1: at Christmas, it's all rolling hills and orchards and horse
Speaker 1: farms and you know, lots of land and so the
Speaker 1: snow is just like blankets of snow for you know,
Speaker 1: acres and acres. So for me, it's really it's really
Speaker 1: about about Westchester. Up here in New York. A lot
Speaker 1: of people think of New York just as the big Apple.
Speaker 1: You know, people who have never lived on the East
Speaker 1: Coast or in Westchester or been to upstate New York.
Speaker 1: And and even me, I mean, I'm from the West Coast,
Speaker 1: but I was on the East Coast for many, many years,
Speaker 1: and I thought of New York as the Big Apple.
Speaker 1: And then I moved to Rochester, right and I went
Speaker 1: whoa even well even more so people think of like
Speaker 1: when I tell people Westchester, they think upstate. But in truth,
Speaker 1: Westchester is is literally it's called down state. That's what
Speaker 1: it's called. It's there's downstate, which is where the northern suburbs.
Speaker 1: So like you know, like like if you go off
Speaker 1: to the you know, to one side, you've got New Jersey,
Speaker 1: if you got to the east, you've got Long Island,
Speaker 1: which is you know, one suburb, and then you've got Westchester.
Speaker 1: So we're you know, people that work in the city
Speaker 1: live up here, so we're just a commute. But it
Speaker 1: feels like it's so different, like like you know, Rochester, Albany,
Speaker 1: that's that's upstate. Is it's a bigger state than that's Canada.
Speaker 1: That's Canada. That's Canada. But my point is there's mountains,
Speaker 1: there's horse farms, there's cattle farms, there's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, the burbs. But it doesn't feel or
Speaker 1: look like a metropolitan area. It's just like you said,
Speaker 1: a postcard. It's beautiful. It's beautiful up here. And I
Speaker 1: mean we we were in the city for while my
Speaker 1: wife was born and race she was a queen's girl
Speaker 1: and uh we but we we came up here and
Speaker 1: just fell in love with it, you know, and we
Speaker 1: like the proximity to the city, and I think that's
Speaker 1: that's important for us to be able to, you know,
Speaker 1: to get in and out of it. But we found ourselves,
Speaker 1: you know, year after year going in less and less
Speaker 1: and being you know, up here people a lot more
Speaker 1: than we were in the city. People. Well, I could
Speaker 1: use the pandemic is the reason. But I'm kind of enjoying.
Speaker 1: I gotta be honest, Rob, I'm kind of enjoying just
Speaker 1: being shut in with my family. I don't mind it,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean there's a there's a part of
Speaker 1: me that's like that that they but it used to
Speaker 1: be that I could get both of those itches scratched, right,
Speaker 1: because I could go on the road and it was
Speaker 1: every day is new and there's always new people. And
Speaker 1: I like new people. I like meeting people, I like
Speaker 1: interacting with with strangers. And then when I get off
Speaker 1: the road, it's a long time of just nothing, you know,
Speaker 1: and and isolation. And uh, I think it's because the
Speaker 1: whole job is supposed to be too pronged. I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to create and then go share that thing that I created,
Speaker 1: and right here I've been just creating, eating, creating, creating,
Speaker 1: and I don't get that the joy of the interaction
Speaker 1: and that shared moment once you know, when you go
Speaker 1: out and you get to play it with a group
Speaker 1: of people, like a group of like minded individuals, all
Speaker 1: on the same page in the same moment, there's something
Speaker 1: beautiful about that. And I do miss that interaction. But
Speaker 1: but I but I fare pretty well as a shut in. No,
Speaker 1: for the most part, it's been me and Matti alone.
Speaker 1: It's just the two of us. I mean, her mom.
Speaker 1: Years ago. We bought her mom and dad a place.
Speaker 1: It's only like six miles away, so they're part of
Speaker 1: our bubble. And like once or twice a week we
Speaker 1: have catchup night with everybody. We'll get together with somebody's
Speaker 1: house and you know, and have dinner. But most of
Speaker 1: the time it's it's me and Matty and the pups.
Speaker 1: And so it's amazing that we fared as well as
Speaker 1: we have, Like, you know, by now, we thought we'd
Speaker 1: be you know, walked downstairs to see each other and
Speaker 1: be like, oh you again, Well we're uh, but you know,
Speaker 1: but we we still like each other. We're still getting along.
Speaker 1: So it's it's kind of amazing how many pups. You
Speaker 1: and your wife have an amazing organization, an umbrella organization
Speaker 1: as I understand that, like you don't have an actual
Speaker 1: rescue at your house, right, we fund other rescues, yeah,
Speaker 1: we you know, we help either help them get like
Speaker 1: kennels and runs, our medical supplies or do big rescues. Um,
Speaker 1: it's more you know, these these are there's a lot
Speaker 1: of great organizations that are that are helping animals and
Speaker 1: no kill shelters and so we're you know, we're about
Speaker 1: getting critical funding to all of these places as they
Speaker 1: need them and try and trying to do that during
Speaker 1: the pandemic has been tricky. Trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to raise the money so that we can still keep
Speaker 1: these grants flowing to everybody. But we have we had
Speaker 1: the two and uh just like three or four months ago,
Speaker 1: we lost our our guy Cmme. He was with me
Speaker 1: for fifth almost fifteen years. He would have been fifteen
Speaker 1: like a month later. And he was my constant, my constant,
Speaker 1: you know, every every night in the studio, like he
Speaker 1: was just with me on the road, on the bus,
Speaker 1: and so that you know, it's that having that constant
Speaker 1: presence all the time and then not having it that
Speaker 1: was that was kind of a big hit. Um. But
Speaker 1: but now it's just me and uh Ali, I see
Speaker 1: Alie here, Okay, my turn, let me see if I
Speaker 1: can do this. Oh who's that Ruby? Hi? Ruby? All?
Speaker 1: Hell's Ruby? Ruby is to Ruby is my latest rescue.
Speaker 1: She's a puppy. She's a puppy and she's probably forty
Speaker 1: pounds heavier than I was, you know, really looking for her.
Speaker 1: But she's the best dog I've ever met in my life. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, every every couple of days, you know, I
Speaker 1: would look at my boys and just say that I like,
Speaker 1: I missed them. I missed them already. You know, like
Speaker 1: I already missed him. She is like the best dog
Speaker 1: I've ever met in my life. Well, you know the
Speaker 1: thing about our dogs is they're not disciplined in any
Speaker 1: way whatsoever. Like we've given them like literally just running
Speaker 1: my wife. We're getting these argums just last night, like
Speaker 1: we're sitting there eating and we had these like we
Speaker 1: we've seen these little carrots and we give him some
Speaker 1: carrots and he starts barking if you take too long,
Speaker 1: and I'm like no, and she looks at me, say,
Speaker 1: don't say no to him. I'm like no. So we
Speaker 1: have our manager, Michael Lehmann, has has this this theory
Speaker 1: and we do. We do kind of subscribe to the theory.
Speaker 1: Is that you know, you can spoil your dogs because
Speaker 1: if you have a spoiled dog, the worst you're gonna
Speaker 1: get as a spoiled dog. Like if you spoil your kids,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get an asshole. But if you spoil your dogs,
Speaker 1: you're just gonna get a spoiled dog. So if you're
Speaker 1: gonna spoil anything, it should it should be the pups. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's they literally can do anything and go anywhere and
Speaker 1: and then there's no consequences for any of their actions whatsoever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have very undisciplined dogs outside. You know, I say
Speaker 1: come and they look at me like you gotta be kidding.
Speaker 1: There's a deer over there. I gotta go. But this
Speaker 1: dog came to me this way. I mean she's just
Speaker 1: super well behaved. Yeah, well indoors too, Like this one
Speaker 1: is such a love love love love love just wants
Speaker 1: to like crawl inside of you and cuttle up everywhere,
Speaker 1: every all the time. So tell me about this organization.
Speaker 1: What's the name of your organization, Cydewalchangels Foundation. And you
Speaker 1: don't just help organizations that are rescuing animals, well, no,
Speaker 1: there's also a no kill shelters as well. Um, you
Speaker 1: know they think about then okill shelters, which is great,
Speaker 1: is you you can adopt from an no kill shelter,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to rescue from an no kill
Speaker 1: shelter because these animals are rescued. Once they go to
Speaker 1: an no kill shelter, they have a home they're taking
Speaker 1: care of, they have love, but they just don't have
Speaker 1: it forever home yet. And so you know, we're we
Speaker 1: would love to see all of New York and all
Speaker 1: the country be a full no kill nation at some
Speaker 1: point and that, you know, that would be that would
Speaker 1: be amazing. But you know, we also work with We
Speaker 1: work with the organizations that teach about the responsibility of
Speaker 1: owning animals. We work with organizations that take in homeless
Speaker 1: battered women with their pets. We work with organizations that
Speaker 1: help children with autism through animals and have an animal interaction.
Speaker 1: It's all animal related causes, but it's just in all
Speaker 1: the different facets of how they can be a part
Speaker 1: of your life. Let side Valcaneous Foundation dot org. If
Speaker 1: anybody gets a chance to check it out, I would
Speaker 1: love for people to check it out, and I would
Speaker 1: love for people to support it because, like you said,
Speaker 1: COVID hit and you're not touring, and yet you're still
Speaker 1: supporting all these great organizations and it's hard. Usually it
Speaker 1: was all kind of built into the job. Every we
Speaker 1: had a residency every year of regatta that we would
Speaker 1: do to raise most of our funds for the year.
Speaker 1: But then if I was touring, a little proceed from
Speaker 1: every ticket sold would go to side Volchanins Foundation, or
Speaker 1: I would be able to go out and do Sometimes
Speaker 1: you're full towards that are just for side volcanoes, but
Speaker 1: not being able to do that. You know, you have
Speaker 1: to get more creative now with your funding. Or we
Speaker 1: could just say, please people if you have a heart
Speaker 1: for pets and especially service animals that help kids. I
Speaker 1: know that a lot of my listeners have children on
Speaker 1: the autistic spectrum, and if you do, you know how
Speaker 1: precious that bond and how priceless that bond is when
Speaker 1: when a kid on the spectrum is able to connect
Speaker 1: with an animal and get therapy that way. My nephews
Speaker 1: on the spectrum as well. Yes, Savolcanous Foundation dot org um,
Speaker 1: because a good thing about it too is you. We
Speaker 1: also talked about all the places that we help, So
Speaker 1: if you live near one of those places, you know
Speaker 1: and you can't give to us, and maybe just go
Speaker 1: there and donate your time. Shelters always need something. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they need they need blankets, they need food, they need
Speaker 1: some of your old veterinary medical supplies, so any of
Speaker 1: those things you can do to help. I'm loving getting
Speaker 1: caught up with Rob Thomas. Let me lavish a little
Speaker 1: praise right now on one of my podcast sponsors, and
Speaker 1: then I want to hear more. I've been singing the
Speaker 1: praises of Laura Geller beauty products all year long. Their
Speaker 1: makeup is designed especially for women over forty and I
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Speaker 1: We talked about the small town Christmas, but you've got
Speaker 1: some beautiful duets on the album. Yeah, everybody on there.
Speaker 1: So everybody on the record is a friend. Like because
Speaker 1: again I'm kind of locked down here. It had to
Speaker 1: be someone that I could reach out to personally and
Speaker 1: just ask them if they would do this for me.
Speaker 1: So like BB Wine and bb Wine and sang at
Speaker 1: my wedding. He's been one of our dear friends for
Speaker 1: twenty you know, three years. I've known him as long
Speaker 1: as I've known Marty. Brad Paisley has been a friend
Speaker 1: for twenty some odd years. Abrat Michaelson I just met
Speaker 1: recently a couple of years ago. She was promoting her
Speaker 1: Christmas album and I was out doing like a Christmas
Speaker 1: tour for radio, and we just kind of bonded over
Speaker 1: what geeks we are about Christmas and how much we
Speaker 1: love decorating in Christmas movies and and so I knew
Speaker 1: that if I called her up that she would be
Speaker 1: into doing it. Okay, favorite Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful life. Ah,
Speaker 1: that's mine and my producer Janie's too. But you know
Speaker 1: what my kid's favorite one is Elf Helf. Yeah. My
Speaker 1: five year old discovered Elf last year. We watched Elf
Speaker 1: every day. Yeah, I mean, listen it is. It is
Speaker 1: a modern classic. You know, there's a few of those.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you. Family Man with Nicholas Cage
Speaker 1: is a great one. Um scrooged, love scrooged, unbelievable. Uh.
Speaker 1: My favorite Christmas Carol is the Muppets Christmas Carol with
Speaker 1: Michael Caine, Charlie Brown Christmas Charlie Brown Christmas of course,
Speaker 1: and all and all those you know those cartoons, right
Speaker 1: like all the what do you like the claymation of
Speaker 1: the animation you know with a dentist, Yes, exactly, the dentist.
Speaker 1: We could be independent together. So are you Will your
Speaker 1: son be with you this Christmas season? Will we? Because
Speaker 1: I've missed on the last two Christmases. So he graduated
Speaker 1: from college and he used to live in Boston, so
Speaker 1: it was great because I could you know, we could
Speaker 1: see each other all the time. Now as soon as
Speaker 1: he graduated, he went to Berkeley College of Music and
Speaker 1: then him and his band jetted off to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: so now they're on the other side of the country
Speaker 1: and then everything locked down, so we haven't really been
Speaker 1: able to see each other. And I'm hoping that this
Speaker 1: holiday is the time. So he got some of Dad's
Speaker 1: musical d n A. Yeah, he's a really really good
Speaker 1: guitar player and writer. So I'm really excited about the
Speaker 1: stuff that they're doing. Very cool. So tell us how
Speaker 1: we can find your son. We know how to find
Speaker 1: Rob Thomas. How do we find your son? Well, you
Speaker 1: know what, you can go check out on Spotify. He
Speaker 1: has a band called handmade house. He's the cute guitar
Speaker 1: player with the glasses, handmade house, and his name. His
Speaker 1: name is Mason Avery William Thomas uti wow with an
Speaker 1: exclamation point. Actually, on his birth certificate he has an
Speaker 1: exclamation point because I think his mother and I were high.
Speaker 1: Oh you are a kick, Rob Thomas. Thank you for
Speaker 1: spending this time with us. Are you kidding me? This
Speaker 1: has been the most fun interview I've done in a while.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You are awesome. You are wonderful, and I
Speaker 1: I've admired, I've loved your music and I just so
Speaker 1: appreciate what you do for God's creatures. Thank you, and
Speaker 1: thank you for you for letting me come and talk
Speaker 1: to you on your show. I appreciate that. Alright, have
Speaker 1: a wonderful, wonderful merry Christmas. All. I love you too.
Speaker 1: It's good to see you by bye. Oh. There is
Speaker 1: just something about Christmas time, isn't There memories to treasure,
Speaker 1: so many more memories to make, especially if you've got
Speaker 1: littles or grandkids. Uh. It's a time of feasting, a
Speaker 1: time of gladness, a time of goodness, a time of
Speaker 1: peace on earth, goodwill towards men, No matter what is
Speaker 1: going on in the world. I also know it's a
Speaker 1: difficult season, especially especially if you're alone or missing a
Speaker 1: loved one, or in the midst of a personal battle.
Speaker 1: All the glits, all the conspicuous consumption, even in these
Speaker 1: tough times, that can be overwhelming. And that is where
Speaker 1: music comes in. Let it soothe you. Let it soothe
Speaker 1: your heart if your heart is tattered and torn, Let
Speaker 1: it comfort you. Let it energize you. Let it be
Speaker 1: the soundtrack to your tears if you need to cry,
Speaker 1: to your laughter, to all the emotion that this season
Speaker 1: brings about. I'm playing all your old favorites and your
Speaker 1: new favorites on my radio show, and I hope you
Speaker 1: will continue to join me there. I'm also sharing stories
Speaker 1: and doing my best to keep your spirits up as
Speaker 1: I smooth off the rough edges when spending time with
Speaker 1: you each night. Rob Thomas and so many others gave
Speaker 1: us a gift this year, a gift of more music
Speaker 1: to add to our playlist, and I hope that you
Speaker 1: are drinking it in, enjoying it as much as I
Speaker 1: have been. There's just something about Christmas Time that's the
Speaker 1: name of the album. Something about Christmas time. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of it is the time that I get
Speaker 1: to spend with you. Merry Christmas, my friends. Thank you
Speaker 1: for making this season of love someone the best season yet.
Speaker 1: I'll have more great guests and incredible conversations to share
Speaker 1: with you soon. Do me a favor, take some time
Speaker 1: out of your holiday schedule to slow down and love
Speaker 1: someone