DNA Test Leads Man to Famous Father

A St. Louis man who grew up a fan of the Doobie Brothers never imagined the band's famous frontman was actually his dad. Michael Goessling, 59, says he learned last year that his biological father is Michael McDonald, the Grammy-winning singer and longtime Doobie Brothers vocalist, after a DNA test and a letter from his birth parents led to a reunion nearly six decades in the making, NBC News reports. Goessling was adopted at birth in a closed adoption; his biological parents were 14-year-old neighbors who gave up the baby and moved on with their lives, though they stayed friends.

A half-brother's 23andMe test finally connected the dots, prompting a letter that arrived just before Goessling's 58th birthday—when he met his birth mother for the first time. That same weekend, he got a voice memo from his biological father and later asked over the phone what he did for a living. "I'm a musician," McDonald replied. Only after Goessling Googled the date and venue of an upcoming St. Louis show did he realize the musician in question was the one he'd been listening to since childhood. He calls their eventual gathering before a McDonald concert "one of the greatest events" of his life. Goessling, who grew up knowing he was adopted, has no complaints about his childhood, per KMOV. "I could not pick two finer folks to raise me," he said.