In what actually looks like on odd collaboration, longtime Doobie Brothers singer/keyboardist Michael McDonald is getting ready to launch an autobiography that he co-wrote with—anticipate it—Mad About You star Paul Reiser. The ebook is titled What a Idiot Believes, named after the chart-topping hit McDonald co-wrote for the Doobies, and can be printed Might 21, 2024.
In keeping with a message in regards to the ebook posted on McDonald’s official web site, the challenge got here collectively in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, quite a lot of years after the singer/keyboardist developed a friendship with Reiser once they met at a celebration. The 2 bonded over their mutual ardour for music, as Reiser additionally was a talented pianist and songwriter.
[RELATED: The Doobie Brothers Tap Mick Fleetwood and Other Artists to Record New Charity Single, “Lahaina”]
Apart from his profitable performing profession and musical capability, Reiser is also an writer who has penned the bestselling books Couplehood, Babyhood and Familyhood.
McDonald and Reiser on Writing the Ebook
In an unique interview with Individuals, Reiser revealed that he was the one who proposed the thought of McDonald writing a memoir.
“As a result of I might periodically ask Mike questions I didn’t perceive in regards to the Doobies, about him, and I mentioned, jokingly, ‘You must write a ebook so I don’t must trouble you on a regular basis,’” Reiser defined. “And he jokingly mentioned, ‘I’ve considered it, however I don’t know the way you begin that.’”
Since each of them had loads of time on the arms in the course of the pandemic, Reiser mentioned they agreed to strive placing a ebook collectively.
Work on the ebook started within the spring of 2020, with Zoom interviews between the 2 serving is the premise for the challenge.
McDonald advised Folks that he initially wasn’t certain if there was sufficient of curiosity in his life to fill out a ebook.
“As a result of my story actually, I’ve all the time felt, existed extra within the individuals I labored with,” the 71-year-old Rock & Roll Corridor of Famer maintained. “It wasn’t actually a lot about me as my success to work with a number of totally different individuals.”
Nonetheless, as work on the ebook progressed, McDonald famous, “the story emerged for me, and I feel for the primary time, I understood my very own story a bit of higher on a extra private stage.”
After all, past his work with The Doobie Brothers, McDonald has had many noteworthy elements to his music profession. They embody being an necessary contributor to a number of Steely Dan albums, having fun with success as a solo artist, and collaborating with the likes of Ray Charles, Carly Simon, Kenny Loggins, James Ingram, and Patti LaBelle.
“There’s so many touchstones of music that he straddles, and there aren’t lots of people who’ve that form of breadth of profession,” Reiser advised Individuals. “Alongside the best way, Mike’s private story comes ahead. A lot of it’s uniquely his, however even the components which can be uniquely his, I feel, resonate with individuals.”
What a Idiot Believes additionally delves into McDonald’s previous points with medication and alcohol and his struggles with insecurity.
Plans for Different Collaborative Tasks
In the meantime, McDonald and Reiser revealed to Folks that they have been planning collaborations past the memoir. They’ve been discussing a potential Broadway musical, and Reiser additionally mentioned they have been writing a tune collectively.
“We have now a number of overlap within the music that we each love,” he famous. “So we’ve thrown foolish, half-baked concepts about doing stuff collectively, and we’ll see. It’ll in all probability be loads simpler and faster than writing a ebook.”
TV Taping Tonight
McDonald and Reiser are in Nashville tonight, December 13, to tape a TV present that in keeping with a publish on MichaelMcDonald.com, “will embody tales, music and a few highlights” from What a Idiot Believes.