Front man Rob Thomas and lead guitarist Kyle Cook of Matchbox Twenty were in New York City last week for an Up Close and Personal Q&A/performance with Fresh 102.7′s Jim & Kim at City Winery in New York City – along with some lucky Fresh listeners.

Performing in an intimate setting at the Winery brought back memories of the band’s seventeen year journey in the music industry and their steady climb to turning their passion into a career.

“After that first record, we started off playing places like this to half empty rooms this size and then throughout that record we started playing bigger clubs and theaters and then we ended up in arenas all over the world,” said Rob Thomas.

Photos: Matchbox Twenty Perform @ City Winery NYC

With sold out venues and anxious fans, the band began recording their second album realizing that they were on a steadfast path to stardom and that it “doesn’t get any better than this” as Kyle Cook likes to describe the little moments they encountered on their path to fame.

During the Q&A session, one fan wanted to know if it was true that the band drank $30,000 worth of wine during the recording of the new album.

“I think it could have been more,” says Rob.

Kyle disagrees.

“I don’t know I take issue with that number. There was a lot of wine though. We got some for free too by the way,” said Kyle.

Coppola Winery (of Francis Ford fame) sent the band four cases of wine while they were producing the album after the band tweeted how much they enjoyed that particular brand. It certainly pays to share your thoughts in 140 drunken characters.

a lot of questions about the wine. it's coppola's directors cut. it's the godfather of wine. get it? godfather? like the movie? coppola?—
matchboxtwenty (@MatchboxTwenty) July 28, 2011

Half our record budget goes to this. yfrog.com/h49vwlvgj—
matchboxtwenty (@MatchboxTwenty) July 28, 2011

Five albums and thousands of dollars of wine later, Matchbox Twenty is at it once again with the release of their new album, “North” earlier this week.

After the Q&A session, which was hijacked by some excited fans at the end, Rob & Kyle performed the first single off their new album, “She’s So Mean,” a slow paced ode to the toxic woman in your life that you just can’t let go of.

Matchbox Twenty will be announcing tour dates soon. They are set to perform as early as the end of this year in Australia with special guests INXS. Shows will continue into the end of January/early February.

–Maria Bonello, Fresh 102.7

More Matchbox Twenty News On Fresh1027.com

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