Michael Goessling, 58, finally asked the stranger on the phone if he was Michael McDonald.
The St. Louis man had just learned the musician was his biological father, a secret hidden for nearly six decades after Goessling was put up for adoption as an infant. Goessling, who had always known he was adopted, told KMOV St. Louis that he “had a wonderful childhood” but never stopped wondering about his birth parents. That curiosity led him to 23andMe, where a half brother he never knew existed had submitted his own DNA, unlocking the connection on Goessling’s 58th birthday.
The phone call that followed caught him completely off guard. McDonald, 74, mentioned he was a musician and would be touring in St. Louis this summer.
“Then I finally said, ‘Are you Michael McDonald,'” Goessling laughed.
The name was pure coincidence. Goessling had been unnamed at birth, so the shared first name was not the tribute many might assume. McDonald, who rose to mainstream fame in 1975 as lead singer and keyboardist for The Doobie Brothers, was just 23 when he joined the band and helped produce hits like “Takin’ It to the Streets” and “What a Fool Believes.” At that same moment, his biological son was roughly nine years old and living a life McDonald could not have provided.
McDonald carried that weight for decades. “I always carried guilt with him,” he told KMOV.
“But just to know that he was okay and that he had a good life, and a life certainly that I wouldn’t have been able to afford him at that time in my life, was a great reward,” the singer added.
Goessling made sure his father understood his gratitude. He told McDonald that he “really appreciated him,” though McDonald directed all praise toward Goessling’s adopted parents, Paul and Kay. They gave Michael “everything a child needs,” McDonald emphasized.
The father and son have since met face to face. They embraced and told each other they loved one another, closing a gap that opened when two teenagers conceived a child neither was equipped to raise.
McDonald has built his own family in the years since. He married singer Amy Holland in 1983 after producing her album “On Your Every Word” in 1980. The couple welcomed two children, Dylan, 37, and Scarlett, 34. Holland faced breast cancer in 1986 and was later declared cancer-free. McDonald, who discussed the experience in his 2024 memoir, said he was “just trying to be there for her” during that period.
“But I sure learned to admire her and her struggle and how she put us first, even at the darkest times in that struggle. That says a lot about her,” he shared.
The reunion brought McDonald more than a son he never knew. He also discovered grandchildren he had no idea existed.
“That’s still sinking in to me,” he told KMOV St. Louis.
McDonald and Holland remain married after more than four decades together, a partnership that weathered her health crisis and the demands of his touring career. The singer continues to perform live, with scheduled stops including the St. Louis area where his newly found son lives.