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FAMILY REVEAL

Doobie Brothers Legend's Long-Lost Son Found After 59 Years

A St. Louis executive given up for adoption at birth learned through a DNA test that Grammy-winning "yacht rock" icon Michael McDonald is his biological father.

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BY OBSERVER ENTERTAINMENT DESK

The Weekly Observer

OCT 3, 2026 · 1 MIN READ
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Michael Goessling, a 58-year-old St. Louis business executive, always knew he was adopted through Catholic Charities as a baby — he just never imagined a rock legend was part of his story.

A routine 23andMe test connected him to Michael McDonald, the five-time Grammy winner behind the Doobie Brothers and "Yah Mo B There." McDonald, who had Goessling as a teenager, reportedly welcomed the match and the two have since connected directly.

"I just wanted to know where I came from," Goessling told reporters of the decades-long mystery, now solved just shy of his 59th birthday.

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