Decades after fathering a child at 14, yacht rock icon Michael McDonald has been reunited with his lost son.
Michael Goessling was adopted as an infant and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents, Paul and Kay Goessling, brought him into their home after his teenage parents gave him up for adoption. “Always knew I was adopted,” Goessling told local news outlet First Alert 4. “Had a wonderful childhood. I could not pick two finer folks to raise me.”
While he lived a very content life, Goessling still wondered from time to time about his biological parents. One day, his curiosity began to be answered when a half-brother he never knew found out about him through a 23andMe DNA test.
Michael McDonald had a son who was put up for adoption when the Doobie Brothers singer was a teenager
“Within 36 hours, he got an email notifying him: Michael Goessling, half-brother, St. Louis. And that’s how this all began,” Goessling recalled. The Midwestern man was then able to meet his birth mother for the first time, on his 58th birthday. Some time later, he connected with his biological father over the phone.
As they talked, Goessling’s father mentioned he was a musician. He said that he was actually preparing to pass through St. Louis on tour that summer. This clued Goessling into something, and he just flat-out asked the question: “I said, ‘Are you Michael McDonald?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’m afraid so.’”
Turns out, his father was five-time Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Michael McDonald. A music icon known for songs like “What a Fool Believes” and “I Keep Forgettin’”. In addition to his illustrious solo career, he’s also well known as a member of the legendary yacht rock band The Doobie Brothers.
McDonald has been married to singer-songwriter Amy Holland since 1983. The pair share two children, and it seems one of them was the first to learn about Michael Goessling.
Notably, it was pure coincidence that the father and son share the same first name.
Michael McDonald remained close with the mother of his long-lost son
Over the years, McDonald and Goessling’s biological mother remained close friends. During a video call, McDonald shared what it was like not knowing what had happened to their son all those years ago.
“We always talked about him. And it always came down to our greatest fear: how did life treat him?” McDonald shared. “I always carried that guilt with me. 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, was a great reward. The real rock stars in this story are his adoptive parents.”
Eventually, McDonald and Goessling were able to meet face-to-face and embrace one another for the first time. “When he first saw me, he put his arms out, gave me a big old bear hug and told me he loved me, and I told him the same,” Goessling reflected.
The reunion has another layer of specialness to it, because it marks McDonald’s discovery that he is a grandfather.
“Yeah, I’m still wrapping my head around that,” McDonald said while laughing. “My daughter-in-law is just the daughter-in-law you’d hope for. And the kids are two of the greatest kids you’d ever meet. I’m just so proud of them.”
Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images
The post This Yacht Rock Icon Fathered a Child When He Was 14, and They Just Met for the First Time appeared first on VICE.
