Matchbox Twenty's Thomas, 3 Doors Down's Arnold Top BMI Awards

05/15/2002 3:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Jerry Armor

(5/15/02, 3 p.m. ET) -- Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas and 3 Doors Down's Brad Arnold were honored for their recent songwriting successes at the 50th annual BMI Pop Awards, held Tuesday (May 14) in Beverly Hills.

Thomas's "If You're Gone" was named pop song of the year by the performance rights organization, as its most-performed song during the eligibility period of October 2000 to October 2001. Thomas joins a list of past winners that includes Shania Twain, Mariah Carey, and Michael Bolton. "If You're Gone" appears on Matchbox Twenty's two-year-old second album, Mad Season.

Arnold, meanwhile, earned the title of pop songwriter of the year by having four songs making the cut on BMI's 50 most-performed list. All four--"Be Like That," "Duck And Run," "Kryptonite," and "Loser"--are featured on 3 Doors Down's debut album from 2000, The Better Life.

In spite of Arnold's own success, he seemed most impressed with being in the company of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard, all of whom were granted the first-ever BMI Icon Awards for their "unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers." He tells LAUNCH, "That's awesome. That's three men who took music many steps at a time. I mean, I'm thrilled to just be in the same room with them. It's awesome."

Among the other honorees was Lifehouse's Jason Wade, whose hit single "Hanging By A Moment" was named most-performed song on college radio.

-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles

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