This story originally aired on Sunday Morning, October 3, 2021.
It’s not surprising that they have been playing the riff for over 50 years. But, knocking the rust off has never sounded as good, like this Burbank band practicing in a rehearsal room. Patrick Simmons said, “A band like ours is a little different from a lot of other bands, I think.”
The Doobie Brothers have sold more than 50,000,000 albums in the past 50 years than any other band.
Jim Axelrod, Correspondent: “You can count on one and maybe have a few more fingers the number of bands which have had that type of longevity?”
“Right. John McFee said, “I think we all feel pretty fortunate.”
While there have been other members over the years, Simmons McFee Michael McDonald, Tom Johnston and Tom Johnston – the core four Doobies — still feel pretty lucky to be playing together and will not let any of the bitterness that threatened other bands’ careers stop them from celebrating their Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame careers by going on a 50th anniversary tour.
McFee stated, “I think that as dinosaur bands go we get along better than many of them, too.”
“Dinosaur bands?” said McDonald.
“Ouch!” Johnston laughed.
Axelrod stated, “That’s a helluva term you just invented.”
McDonald’s laughed, “We’ll have to fight about that later.”
Their story began in 1970 in San Jose, California. Johnston and Simmons met while playing guitar. Jamming helped them book gigs which led to a need for a name. Simmons recalls, “This guy said to them, “You guys should smoke so many weed that you should be called the Doobie Brothers.” ‘Yeah, right. It’s going to fly!
Their hard-driving rock appealed a large crowd of bikers in Northern California to whom they reeled off a string hit: “China Grove”, “Black Water,” and “Rockin’ down the Highway.”
The Doobie Brothers perform Black Water:
Axelrod inquired, “So, these many years, 71, 2,?3, ’4, & ‘5, like everything’s going great?”
Johnston responded, “Yeah it accelerated each year.”
It was everything anyone who ever climbed on a guitar to chase the dream of being a rock star could have imagined. And that’s exactly when it all began.
Johnston stated, “All the obvious stuff, drugs, booze and women.”
“It is impossible for a group of young men in their twenties to manage all that success gracefully. Axelrod asked.
“That’s true. We didn’t!” Johnston laughed. Johnston laughed. He was the first to be sidelined due to a bleeding ulcer while the band was touring. “I had to quit the band, unfortunately. I meant, I had had the ulcer since highschool. He said that the rock star lifestyle “exacerbates the problem.”
The Doobies had to find someone quickly. A few of them knew someone who knew a keyboardist and was active in clubs around Los Angeles. McDonald’s said that he was at the Trojan Room in Glendale at the time.
McDonald’s would be a different place. The Doobie Brothers would not be the same when it was time to record their next album. He said, “I kind of started to bring in songs that were at that stage kind of, you know?, in varying degrees being finished.” “‘Takin’ it to the Streets’ was one.
The Doobie Brothers’ sound was changing and softening. McDonald’s was asked if he was aware that the sound had changed. It wasn’t a good thing. I felt like, Oh boy, you know? “I’m going to be the reason this entire thing turns into s**t!”
It was actually platinum. Their 1979 album, “Minute by Minute”, was triple platinum.
Axelrod asked Simmons at the studio where “Minute by Minute” was recorded: “[Were] we aware that this might actually be huge?”
Simmons responded, “I don’t believe you can ever anticipate those things.” “I believe you can only say, “This is accomplishing the goals I had in my mind as a writer or as a player.”
The album’s title track, “What a Fool Believes”, was the band’s biggest hit and won a Grammy Record of the Year.
Axelrod asked them, looking back, “Is anyone stating, “We are losing our soul, but we’re so immensely successful, how can you balance this?”
Johnston responded, “I balanced it with leaving.” Johnston replied, “I didn’t feel musically that I belonged in this situation.” It doesn’t really matter anymore. “But those were the days when I didn’t feel at my best.
However, “those days” were more than 40 years ago. They have better things to be concerned about these days. Johnston said, “Who’s going to sing which part?” What chord is that? I don’t believe anyone really cares about the events of that time. I know that I don’t.”
“Maybe the 1976 conflict isn’t as relevant?” Axelrod asked.
“Can’t remember it so it doesn’t really matter!”
The Doobie Brothers (minus McDonald’s) released “Liberte” last year. It was their first album in over a decade. Songs not as heavily influenced by artists of the 1970s as songs from their 70s.
Click the embed below to stream “Liberte”, The Doobie Brothers’ album. Spotify registration is not required to listen in full.
Simmons stated, “At one point John said something like, You know, ‘I was thinking about, you understand, those were better days.’ “I say, “These are the best days, what we’re living now.”
Right now. They are back together, conscious of the passing of time but thankful for the ways they can still fight it. McFee stated, “We are still able, and people might want to hear it.”
McDonald’s said that “When we get up and Pat starts ‘Black Water’ or jump into ‘China Grove’, or ‘Takin’ It To the Streets’ all of a sudden we are 20 years older again, you know?” We’re doing the same thing we did always, you know?
Axelrod stated, “That’s magic.”
“It is. It is.
More information:
Gabriel Falcon produced the story. Joseph Frandino, Editor.
