Rob Thomas hits the road ahead of album

June 8, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

Rob Thomas is a man of his word.

Feeling as though the time was right to not only tour but also release another solo project, the Grammy Award-winning Matchbox Twenty singer-songwriter drew a line in the sand. As for the latter, he wanted to be on the road this spring. It was the former that became a bit problematic.

You see, Thomas returns to Northeast Ohio for a Saturday show at the Akron Civic Theatre, but his new album, “The Great Unknown,” isn’t due out until late summer.

Fans will get a taste of the new project with lead single, “Trust You,” but as far as attending the show knowing the unreleased material? Well, good luck.

“Your hard-core fans are really going to appreciate getting to hear it in any form, and it gets them ready for the record,” said Thomas in a recent telephone conference call. “To be honest, I could really spit out this whole really cool plan on why I did it this way, but a long time ago, I just picked a date and said, ‘I’m going to be on the road, and if I’m not on the road at this point, I’m going to kill myself.’

“I set a date to be on the road and then moved everything up. The idea now is to be out touring for this single to build up all the excitement for the record and then I can do all the traditional promo after that. The good side of that is when we hit that for the promo, the band is going to be killing it.”

Killing it is something Thomas has been doing for the nearly 20 years Matchbox Twenty has been on the music scene. The rock act is known for radio hits such as “Push,” “3AM,” “If You’re Gone,” and “Bent.” The band’s most-recent effort “North” not only debuted at No. 1 but enjoyed hit singles, “She’s So Mean,” “Overjoyed” and “Our Song.”

As for Thomas’ solo career, his two previous efforts – 2005’s “… Something to Be” and 2009’s “Cradlesong” – produced similar results with radio hits “Lonely No More,” “This Is How A Heart Breaks” and “Streetcorner Symphony,” as well as No. 1 singles “Her Diamonds” and “Someday.”

Regarding his solo material in general, and songs from “The Great Unknown” in particular, Thomas said it’s easy for him to separate Rob Thomas tunes from Matchbox Twenty material.

“They sound so different for me, and then in some ways, they really don’t,” Thomas said.