Yacht rock legend Michael McDonald has announced he has written his memoir with Emmy-winning comedian Paul Reiser.
Titled What a Fool Believes, after McDonald's 1979 hit with the Doobie Brothers, the book is set for release on May 21, 2024 via publisher Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.
The two began writing the book together in the spring of 2020 over Zoom, with discussions based around transcripts McDonald had written.
According to the product description, What a Fool Believes is a "candid, freewheeling memoir, written with his friend, the Emmy Award-nominated actor and comedian Paul Reiser, [in which] Michael tells the story of his life and music. A high school dropout from Ferguson, Missouri, Michael chased his dreams in 1970’s California, a heady moment of rock opportunity and excess. As a rising session musician and backing vocalist, a series of encounters would send him on a wild ride around the world and to the heights of rock stardom—from joining Steely Dan and becoming a defining member of The Doobie Brothers to forging a path as a breakout solo R&B artist."
In an interview with PEOPLE, Reiser said, “Mike did the hard part. He had to live the first 60, 70 years and then remember it. That was the challenge.”
“There's so many touchstones of music that he straddles, and there aren't a lot of people who have that kind of breadth of career,” Reiser continued. “Along the way, Mike's personal story comes forward. So much of it is uniquely his, but even the parts that are uniquely his, I think, resonate with people.”
“The thing that was the most daunting was wondering if there ever even was a story there,” McDonald added. “Because my story really, I've always felt, existed more in the people I worked with. That was really basically my story. It wasn't really so much about me as my good fortune to work with a lot of different people. But as we kind of moved along, the story emerged for me, and I think for the first time, I understood my own story a little better on a more personal level.”
Tonight (December 13), McDonald and Reiser will be taking part in an intimate live discussion in Nashville to be taped for television that will include stories, music and some highlights from their upcoming book.
Earlier this year, McDonald had a moment when an 11-year-old superfan of his from Iowa went viral after meeting her velvet-voiced idol.