Michael McDonald, the voice behind "What a Fool Believes" and a Doobie Brothers icon, recently discovered he has an adult son he never knew existed. According to Rolling Stone, the discovery came through a DNA test that connected them.
Michael Goessling, a St. Louis resident, was adopted as an infant. Last year, a half-brother who had taken a 23andMe test contacted him. "Within 36 hours, he got an email notifying him: Michael Goessling, half-brother, St. Louis," Goessling told local outlet KCTV 5.
On his 58th birthday, Goessling met his biological mother in person. When he later spoke to his biological father on the phone and asked what he did for a living, the man mentioned he was a musician touring through St. Louis that summer. Goessling asked: "Are you Michael McDonald?" The answer was yes.
McDonald was 14 when Goessling was born. He and Goessling's mother, also a teenager, chose to place their son for adoption. "We always talked about him," McDonald told KCTV 5. "And it always came down to our greatest fear was, how did life treat him? I always carried that guilt with me."
When McDonald finally met his son in person, the reunion went well. "When he first saw me, he put his arms out, gave me a big old bear hug," Goessling recalled. McDonald credited his son's adoptive parents as "the real rock stars in this story."
DNA testing has reconnected millions of adoptees, biological parents, and secret siblings in recent years. For McDonald, it meant finally learning whether his teenage choice had worked out. Goessling's life suggested it had.
Neither parent intentionally named their son Michael to match his father's name. It was pure coincidence.
