Rob Thomas Accidentally Hits Matchbox Twenty Bandmate With Microphone Stand

Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas got a painful reminder Sunday that some stage moves are better left alone.

During the band’s performance of its 2000 hit “Bent” at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Illinois, Thomas accidentally struck drummer and guitarist Paul Doucette with a microphone stand.

Video shared on social media shows Thomas swinging the stand behind him by its upper end. The stand then appears to hit Doucette, who quickly left the stage.

Thomas stopped to address the crowd and admitted that his usual stage move had gone badly.

“Every night, I’m over here, and I’m throwing this god d--- thing around,” Thomas said. “Oh, it went, and it nailed him. Yeah, we nailed him hard.”

Thomas, 54, said Doucette was his best friend and joked that he thought he had nearly killed him. He then asked the audience to give the band a moment.

“The action felt like a really good idea right up until now,” Thomas said. “Throwing that s--- around. I feel like an ass.”

Doucette, 53, eventually returned to the stage carrying a glass, turning the incident into a brief toast. But he made it clear that he had warned Thomas about the microphone stand before.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve told you not to throw that f---ing thing,” Doucette said, pointing at the stand. “I knew it was only a matter of time.”

The two musicians then joked about Doucette’s position on stage. Thomas asked if he was “in the danger zone,” while also comparing Doucette’s return to the stage to Dean Martin.

The incident continued after the show. In another video, Doucette was seen having something removed from his ear with tweezers. He explained that the impact had pushed pieces of his earpiece into his ear and left him in pain.

“Rob took me the f--- out,” Doucette said.

Thomas later apologized to his longtime bandmate.

Matchbox Twenty was formed in 1995 by Thomas, Doucette and Brian Yale. Kyle Cook is also a member of the band. Despite the onstage mishap, the group’s tour continues, with upcoming appearances including the Utah State Fair in Salt Lake City on Sept. 18 and the Oceans Calling Festival in Ocean City, Maryland, on Sept. 27.

After nearly three decades of playing together, Thomas and Doucette have clearly seen plenty of things go wrong onstage. This time, however, it was a microphone stand that nearly turned a routine performance into an unexpected medical stop.