{"id":2176479,"date":"2026-10-02T22:09:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T19:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2176479"},"modified":"2026-10-02T22:09:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T19:09:27","slug":"michael-mcdonald-of-the-doobie-brothers-reconnects-with-son-he-put-up-for-adoption-at-age-14-nearly-6-decades-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2176479","title":{"rendered":"Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers Reconnects With Son He Put Up for Adoption at Age 14, Nearly 6 Decades Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tOne of the Doobie Brothers has reconnected with a long-lost Doobie son.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs reported by NBC, Michael McDonald made contact a year and a half ago with biological son Michael Goessling, who recalls putting it together over a preliminary phone call that he was related to a rock star.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe Doobie Brothers, Queen, Bee Gees and Other Groups in the Songwriters Hall of\u00a0Fame\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Blue<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t15 Musicians Who Have Collaborated With Their Kids: Beyonc\u00e9, Shakira &\u00a0More\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Sound,<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tThe Doobie Brothers On \u2018Civic Duty,\u2019 \u2018Limitations\u2019 in Today\u2019s Music & Writing Songs With Charlie\u00a0Puth\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAdopted as a baby, 59-year-old Goessling told the outlet that he never knew his biological parents until last year, when he received a letter informing him that they wanted to meet him. His first conversation with McDonald was over the phone.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just said: \u2018What a voice that guy has!\u2019\u201d Goessling said. \u201cIt just sounded so familiar, but I couldn\u2019t place it. Finally, I just said: \u2018Are you Michael McDonald?\u2019 And he chuckled and he said, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m afraid so.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGoessling also figured out the identity of his birth father after McDonald told him he was a musician with a gig that night at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater. A quick Google search showed that the Doobie Brothers were booked for the venue on that date.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere are still days I wake up, and my first thought is I am coming out of the craziest dream, and it\u2019s been a year and a half,\u201d Goessling added. \u201cI\u2019m still trying to get my head around all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack when McDonald was 14, he had a child with his middle-school girlfriend. The pair put the child up for adoption, and the musician went on to replace Tom Johnston as the lead singer of the Doobie Brothers. McDonald has five Grammys to his name and helped the Doobie Brothers score Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 \u201cWhat A Fool Believes,\u201d as well as other top 10 hits such as \u201cReal Love\u201d and \u201cThe Doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGoessling also told NBC that he never harbored resentment for his biological parents \u2014 who he says are still good friends \u2014 for putting him up for adoption. \u201cI just wanted to thank them for the choices they made on my behalf and for giving me a shot in this world, and how grateful I was for that,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were always heroes in my story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/music-news\/doobie-brothers-michael-mcdonald-biological-son-adopted-1236353633\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2219896800-e1790976776709.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard One of the Doobie Brothers has reconnected with a long-lost Doobie son. As reported by NBC, Michael McDonald made contact a year and a half ago with biological son Michael Goessling, who recalls putting it together over a preliminary phone call that he was related to a rock star. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2176479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2176479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2176479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2176479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2176479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}