Don't F**k With Rob Thomas

Rob Thomas has written an open letter to DJs Matt & Ramona of the Charlotte radio station WLNK. Turns out Thomas and Paul Doucette of Matchbox 20 were scheduled to appear on the Matt & Ramona show last week, but had to cancel when Thomas got food poisoning and fell behind schedule.

When Matt & Ramona found out that Thomas was making other appearances during the day, they got a little fired up and starting making fun of Matchbox 20. In fairness, they were only angry for about a minute or so and then they just segued into joking about it, but still, Thomas was not happy.

The DJs said something about not playing Matchbox 20's music anymore, which Thomas did not take kindly to. Here is an excerpt from Thomas' letter:

I was in the middle of scheduling a 5:30 a.m. flight in November to Charlotte to do the make up gig, when we saw on our website that you had completely jumped the gun and started to speak out on the air about how you weren't going to play our music until we apologize in person to you. Even though this is the first time a DJ has ever publicly blackmailed us, we have pretty thick skin and would have still found a way to work something out with your station. The final straw for us was that you chose to read and make fun of letters that fans sent you, trying to defend us. To make great radio stations, you need DJs, the bands they play and, most importantly, the fans who listen. It's our belief that you have left out two of those three things.

We are not precious; far from it, but we have worked hard over the last 15 years (always respectful of radio and all it's given us,) and refuse to be publicly blackmailed. We thank you for the years of support and are sorry it has to come to an end, but there is no way we will ever apologize after being threatened on the air.

You can read Rob's entire message on MySpace, right here. It's very classy. When I heard about the letter, I was kind of hoping for a Scott Stapp-esque message where Thomas got all fired up, but sadly, that was not the case. I read through a bunch of the comments left by MySpace users, and I realized three things:

1) Matchbox 20 fans are extremely loyal and devoted (but sadly, most are married).

2) Many people who listened to the Matt & Ramona show thought they were just joking around and Rob's response was overblown.

3) I'm really glad I don't use MySpace.

So anyway, I had to hear this for myself. I just finished listening to the podcast of the segment on the Matt & Ramona website. On the one hand, the whole blackmail/threat thing was a joke, and it's getting blown out of proportion. On the other hand, Matt & Ramona were legitimately upset over Matchbox 20's cancellation. They spent like 20 minutes talking about it and they definitely insinuated that Matchbox 20 sucks. They were pissed, but then again, they didn't know the full story -- which is explained in Rob's letter -- so maybe they overreacted. The segment online doesn't include the part where they allegedly mock MB20 fans, so I don't know how bad that was.

In other words, I learned nothing.

I'll let Ari Gold solve this one...