Matchbox 20″s Rob Thomas has joined “The Voice” as a mentor for Season 3. Thomas will work with Cee Lo Green”s team.
His participation leaves Christina Aguilera as the only judge yet to announce a mentor: Mary J. Blige recently signed on with Team Adam Levine and Michael Buble is with Team Blake Shelton. I”d love to see Aguilera bring in someone like Bruno Mars or Taio Cruz. Each of the mentors brings a different vocal perspective to the show and they contrast nicely with the judge they’ve been paired with.
Thomas told Us Weekly, which broke the news, that he “loves the idea that I may be in the room with a future superstar that the world has yet to discover.”
He probably also loves how “The Voice” helped bring Maroon 5 and Adam Levine back to the top of the charts with their smash “Moves Like Jagger” featuring Aguilera. Levine has used his “The Voice” stint as a launchpad to get into acting as well, including an upcoming role in “American Horror Story” and in the movie “Can A Song Save Your Life.” Matchbox 20″s first full album of new material, “North,” comes out Sept. 4. The new season of “The Voice” premieres Sept. 10 on NBC. Nice timing, right? The group has already released “She”s So Mean,” the first single from the set, which I reviewed here.
Thomas is a funny, smart guy who is going to be a great asset to the show. He”d been hinting in recent tweets that he had something big coming up and I was hoping that he was going to be named an “American Idol” judge, but this may be a better move for now since it allows him to get his feet wet and see how he likes the reality show world. Still, it would have been a kick to see Thomas, who is very low-key, and newly-announced “AI” judge Mariah Carey bounce of each other. I assessed Carey’s strengths and weaknesses as a judge here.