Posted on 05/30/2024 10:06:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Michael McDonald has detailed his failed attempt to “make some easy money” by selling cocaine.
It was the ‘70s and McDonald was a member of Steely Dan’s touring band, while also providing backing vocals on their albums. The rockers’ common interests extended beyond music, as they were also frequent cocaine users at the time. In a moment of inspiration – or stupidity, depending on how you view it – the musicians devised a plan to sell drugs on the side.
McDonald details the scheme in his new memoir, What a Fool Believes. He and Walter Becker decided they would “buy about a half ounce of some of that exceptionally pure cocaine” from one of their associates, then "make some easy money (selling only to our friends, completely under the radar) but end up with a fair portion of blow for our own recreational consumption, free of charge …. What could possibly go wrong?"
Of course, things did go wrong. Quickly.
After making their cocaine purchase, McDonald and Becker “snorted most of it before even getting around to cutting it, let alone selling anything.” The musicians spent “a couple of harrowing days” inside McDonald’s apartment binging on the drug. By the time their wild ride came to an end, they barely had any cocaine left. Thus, their side career came to a rapid end.
Is Michael McDonald on Tour?
McDonald has a busy touring schedule this summer. The famed singer will be back on the road with the Doobie Brothers for an extended run of North American dates. The trek includes a run of shows with the Eagles, who are out of their Long Goodbye farewell tour.
McDonald originally reunited with the Doobies in 2019 and plotted a 50th anniversary tour with the group. The pandemic put those plans on hold, but the trek eventually launched in 2021. It marked McDonald's first tour with the Doobie Brothers in 25 years.
For a good book about life with a rock and roll band. I recommend “running with the devil” - Van Halen as seen by their manager
Has he revealed anything about his failed attempt at singing?
Ouch!
Well, I think he had several hits on his own including number one hit He had a number one hit with a group and he was a first call background vocal. Including some number one hits. I imagine that success.
“You know that song What A Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers? It scares the hell out of me.” - Brian Wilson, as quoted in the documentary Long Promised Road.
It’s the smile on your face.
It’s perfection and crisp.
God, he was hot back in the day.
No, but I am sure he thinks about it whenever he looks at his bank account.
Aside from being unrecovered heroin addictt, both Becker and Fagan who ran their studio for commercial use, routinely paid studio side people (singers, overdub instruments they themselves did not play, horns etc) with cocaine. Thus hooking people into being cocaine dealers themselves to convert this to cash to pay their bills, because grocery stores and other legal businesses do not accept cocaine as payment. Quite known in the industry and, not alone. Heroin the “elite” drug (not). It’s not called dope for nothing.
This article seems to want to somehow discredit Steely Dan but why, to detract from their success?
I heard that there was a period of time in the early 80s known as the blizzard of Hollywood or the Hollywood snow storm or something like that... that’s just weird to me, I would have thought psychedelics would have been the high of choice.
Michael McDonald survived them, and dealt with his habit.Which they never did. They had enough talent and should have— but didn’t.
Nevertheless, Steely Dan’s body of work survives as is, and rightly so.
Forgot that it was part of the Gerry Todd show. SCTV, especially the 1981-82 season, is still a memorable show.
In my opinion, Mcdonald ruined the Doobie Brothers.
The main songwriter and singer left. Should they have wrapped it up and called it today? They got seven more years of success from that. That’s a tough industry.
He left prior to McDonald? If true they should have renamed the band. They didn’t even sound like the Doobs anymore.
Fantastic voice- amazing even still. Doobie Bros. also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKYQNtF11eg
And, he “kicked the habit”... “shed his skin”. The Sledgehammer. God Bless Recovery and .... LIFE! Not the shite the Xidens (especially the son with his rotten to the gums teeth, sheesh) deal daily from the border.
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