Rob Thomas‘ latest single “Small Town Christmas” was inspired by his own small town, located in the New York City suburbs in Westchester County. And when it came to depicting that small town in the song’s video, he knew he needed something that reflected his family’s real-life holiday experiences.
“We had shot all the live footage of me playing the song and that just didn’t make a video,” Rob tells ABC Audio. “And then, they wanted to use B-stock footage of, like, families having nice Christmases in small towns. And that just didn’t feel personal enough.”
So Rob and his wife, Marisol, decided to give fans a peek into their actual lives in their small town.
“Mari and I got together one night and just compiled together all the video that we had…that we have taken of ourselves, just from our phones and Instagram and stuff like that,” he says.
“We pooled together everything that we had of celebrating Christmas over the last few years up here,” he says of his town. “And then we put that in there and edited it together into the video.”
The video features shots of Rob and Mari and their dogs celebrating in front of the Christmas tree and playing in the snow, as well as scenes of them shopping for decorations, sledding, buying wine and other holiday activities.
Tonight on NBC, Rob will celebrate another Christmas tradition by singing on NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center, along with Alessia Cara, Harry Connick Jr., Norah Jones, Pentatonix, Carrie Underwood and more. The show airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT and will stream simultaneously on Peacock.
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