St. Louis Man Discovers He’s the Biological Son of Yacht Rock Icon Michael McDonald

Michael Goessling, a St. Louis man in his late 50s, always knew he was adopted. He loved his adopted family, having a “wonderful childhood,” though, naturally, he wondered about his biological parents. Recently, he finally discovered the unexpected answer to those lingering question: he’s the son of Michael McDonald.

No, for real. The discovery arose after Goessling’s half-brother, one he didn’t know he had, took a 23andMe DNA test. Goessling popped up in the results, the half-brother reached out, and soon enough he was meeting his biological mother on his 58th birthday. Just a short time later, he connected with his biological father over the phone. After Goessling asked his pops what he did for a living, his father answered that he was a musician and, in fact, was set to blow through St. Louis soon.

“And I said, ‘Are you Michael McDonald?’” Goessling recalled in an interview with Kansas City CBS affiliate KCTV. “And he said, ‘Yeah, I’m afraid so.’”

McDonald had conceived Goessling when he was just 14 and subsequently put him up for adoption. It was a story he revealed in his 2023 memoir What a Fool Believes.

“We always talked about him. And it always came down to our greatest fear was, how did life treat him?” McDonald told KCTV. “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.”

McDonald and Goessling finally met in person this past summer, reportedly embracing each other in “a big old bear hug.” “[He] told me he loved me, and I told him the same,” Goessling remembers. The reunion also revealed to McDonald that he was a grandfather, a fact that the accomplished musician is “still wrapping [his] head around.”

“My daughter-in-law is just the daughter-in-law you’d hope for,” he added. “And the kids are two of the greatest kids you’d ever meet. I’m just so proud of them.”

Also of note, the fact that they share the same first name is mere coincidence.

In addition to his solo career, McDonald is known for his stint with the Doobie Brothers and his brief time contributing to Steely Dan. He’s the voice behind such songs as “What a Fool Believes” and “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)” and has nabbed five Grammys.

Revisit Michael McDonald’s interview with Kyle Meredith from last year, where he discusses reuniting with The Doobie Brothers, yacht rock, and songwriting.