The Pop Corporation

The Doobie Brothers are a fine, fine band – but they sure went up a notch when Michael McDonald got involved. They’ve been enjoying a 50th anniversary reunion, and the whole gang has been on the road together and that’s lovely. It was announced that Steely Dan would be pulling out of the tour with the Eagles, and now, the Doobies will be taking their place. Great news if you were hoping Michael McDonald would be with them this time around, right?

Well, The McDonald/Doobie connection is going to yield some new music too!

Talking to Billboard a while back (we only just tripped over this tidbit), Patrick Simmons and Tom Johnston said they were working with Mike for the first time since the ’80s. In fact, it’s the first time those three have been on an album together since ‘Takin’ It To The Streets’ in 1975. How nice is that?

“We probably kicked it around a little bit, but not a lot,” Johnston says. “Those things just start. They just sorta happen. This whole band has been like that; things just happen through the years — songs, albums.”

Simmons adds: “It’s nice that Tom has an opportunity to interact with Mike musically because they have so much in common as far as their love of R&B and the people they admire. They never really got a chance to interact in this way before, so it makes me happy to see that happening. It’s more than the sum of our parts, I think.”

On one new track, Mike and Johnson are joined by Mavis Staples, which is a room you’d like to be in right?

Of course, this is all on the back of Michael McDonald’s currently victory lap where he’s releasing a memoir called ‘What A Fool Believes: A Memoir’ (on the nose that – we like it) which is out next month.