Michael McDonald finally reunited with his long lost son

The 74-year-old keyboardist, singer and songwriter Michael McDonald, a member of The Doobie Brothers, has finally reunited with his long-lost son, whom he never had the chance to meet, after 60 years. The musician was only 14 when he became a father, and he and the baby’s mother made the painful decision to put their son up for adoption. He said it was a moment he never forgot.

What Michael McDonald said about reuniting with his long lost son

“We always talked about him. And it always came down to, our greatest fear was, how did life treat him? 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 probably have been able to afford him at that time in my life, was a great reward. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience to see Michael and to get to meet my son. You know, after all these years (of) thinking about him.”

“You know, the real Rock stars in this story, for us, are his adoptive parents, who really gave Michael everything a child needs, in terms of love and security,” he said in an interview with KMOV. It was one of Michael’s sons who took a 23andMe DNA test that revealed that Michael Goessling, their half-brother was living in St. Louis and after 36 hours they were in contact. On his 58th birthday he met with his birth brother for the first time and spoke to his biological father on the phone. “I finally said, ‘Are you Michael McDonald?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’m afraid so,'” he recalled laughing.

Curiously, although they have the same name, it wasn’t McDonald who had named him.  “I was unnamed, so it was my mom, Kay, who named me. When he first saw me, he put his arms out, gave me a big old bear hug, told me he loved me — and I told him the same.”