IFLTS: 'Square One,' Tom Petty

'Square One,' Tom Petty
From 2006's 'Highway Companion'

To me, 'Square One' is the perfect song with no wasted space. Nothing is superfluous. There's no pre-chorus, no musical interludes that are there just to drag the song out. Every word is poetry, every word has a poignancy to it and it keeps moving.

My wife knew [how I was feeling] as soon as I turned on this record. We're sitting in the car listening to it, and I'm just like, "Honey." And then our friend got in the car and I'm like, "You gotta hear this song." My wife knows if I hear a song like that I immediately feel uncreative. She looked at me and she's like, "This is gonna happen with you for this song, isn't it?" I'm like, "Oh, it's happening." I feel like the worst songwriter in the world, like anything I've done can never touch the purity of what I just heard. And I'll sit and listen to 'Square One' over and over, and I'm trying to decipher it. I'm like, "I don't get it. It's only three chords. I know these chords. Why haven't I done that?" And I really do best the s--- out of myself.

Rob Thomas is the frontman for multiplatinum-selling rockers Matchbox Twenty. The band's latest album, 'Exile on Mainstream,' is in stores now.

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