Michael McDonald on Music, Purpose & Legacy

Welcome back to Music Drives Us. It's J-Bo with a very special guest today. We've been singing his hits for 50 years, celebrating the 50th anniversary of taking it to the streets. He literally, with the band the Doobie Brothers, the soundtrack of our lives. Please welcome Michael McDonald. Welcome, Michael. Well, Gary J. Bill, how are you? Oh my God, this is such a treat. You joined the Doobies in 75 after Tom Johnson. We love those songs. Listen to the music. Long train running. Take me in your arms. And you joined them in 75 when Tom became ill, but it was kind of supposed to be a fill-in, right? It was kind of temporary. And then something unexplainable happened. Your style and sound evolved the band into a whole new style, which on the outside was certainly welcomed. Was it true that you said in a quote or some story that you said, hey, guys, I don't know, I could be messing up your sound a little bit?

Well, there was always that fear for me. The situation for me as it evolved was unbelievable. Because I'd worked for a few bands over the years or other artists. Usually, if someone was the main writer or it was typically not a situation where people would welcome a newcomer to come in and write songs. But Pat and the guys were a different breed. Their sentiment was really as a band and it was like all comers. Anyone who had any good songs, let's try them out. The producer, Ted Templeman, was same way, very open to the idea. It was really Pat who suggested that Ted listen to some of my songs. Tyran and I had cut a demo at his house of a song of mine and he played it for Ted. Probably the most unlikely song in the world, that the Doobie Brothers would ever attempt to do, a song called Lose an End. And Ted thought it was just quirky and different enough for the band that it might be something that the audience would like to hear from the band. I just kind of was in awe at that moment. And when asked, well, what else have you got? I really, I only had a couple kind of ideas of songs that I had been writing, you know, over the last year or so. One of them was Taking It to the Streets and I kind of played it down for Pat and the guys and the band just kind of chimed in and started playing the song and it became a whole other animal than I had even imagined myself in the first incarnation. I thought I would do it with some kind of gospel choir sometime and more of a recorded in church kind of a thing. But it turned out that the band kind of brought this whole rock and roll energy to it that really made the record what it was, I thought.

Wow. I was 16 and I was a baby DJ. I was on the air. So I played What a Fool Believes when it was new. After, you know, five, four, five years of listening to the music, long train of running, these wonderful songs that were still fresh on the radio and fresh in our mind. But then when you came out with What a Fool Believes, the new Doobies, it wasn't, and I'm trying to come up with an analogy. I don't think I can, but it wasn't. the Sammy Hagar joining Van Halen moment where it was like, okay, it's not jump. We like Sammy. Your addition was a unexplainable organic evolution. It's almost like the band said, here's