Since their debut, Yourself Or Someone Like You was released six years ago, US outfit Matchbox Twenty have sold a pretty impressive 20 million albums plus worldwide. A string of hit singles including memorable gems such as ‘Push’, ‘Real World’, ‘3am’, and ‘Bent’ have kept the band in the limelight in their home territory while their high-profile frontman and main songwriter has scored no end of awards including three Grammys, 11 BMI awards and a Billboard Songwriter of the Year gong – for two years running.

Given all that, it surely must be a source of some frustration for him that, on this side of the Atlantic, at least, Rob Thomas is still best known as the voice of Carlos Santana’s smash hit ‘Smooth’ (which he also wrote).

“It’s both good and bad,” he says. “If you’re going to be associated with something, it might as well be that song. On one level it’s done so much for my career and it’s been good for the band. ‘Smooth’ came out after the first album and we were lucky to have that bridge between the first and second album to keep us going - it kept us in the picture.

“The other great thing about it was that people said, ‘hey, that guy’s a songwriter too’, which carries more weight than being a pop star. At the end of the day I feel I’ve accomplished something. But you’re right, every time we come to Europe people want to talk about ‘Smooth’ and working with Carlos Santana. Which is cool by me, he’s a great guy with a lot of wisdom in him and we’ve become close friends.”

The band’s latest album, More Than You Think You Are continues the formula that made the first two so successful with the band’s gift for radio-friendly rockers and lighter-waving ballads much to the fore.

“More than ever we’re a rock and roll band,” Thomas insists. “We’ve weathered the changing trends and come out the other end. When we started we were on the tail end of bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden. We didn’t quite fit that. When the second record came out it was all Backstreet Boys and N’Sync and other pop bands – we didn’t fit in there either. Nobody in this band is really cool and at this stage we’re playing for our own audience, people who like to hear a band play good songs.”

As a songwriter Thomas has continued to work with big names - the first single to be taken from More Than You Think You Are, the quirky ‘Disease’ was authored with none other than Mick Jagger. “Ever since the success of ‘Smooth’ I get a lot of offers to write with other artists,” he explains. “Most of them I turn down but when Mick Jagger calls you up you don’t refuse. It was exactly like that, he was doing his last solo record Goddess In A Doorway and he called me in New York and asked me to write a song for it. It was a huge honour and I was scared but once you get past the ‘Oh my God, I’m in a room with Mick Jagger’ bit. it’s fine.

“I came up with ‘Disease’ the night before. I wanted to bring something great to him. The next day he added a couple of lines and it turned out great. In the end he didn’t use the song on his album so at his suggestion we decided to record it ourselves.”

Meanwhile, the band’s popularity shows no sign of waning.

“Most of all we’re still a great live band,” Thomas declares. “I don’t think you’re worth your salt as a band if you can’t bring it off live and we try to bring a lot to our shows. Before we ever dreamed of making records we were just guys in a bar and that feeling will always be there.”