What a Fool Believes: A Memoir

Singer and songwriter McDonald debuts with an affecting account of his early life, career trajectory, and struggles with addiction. Born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1952, McDonald first stepped into the music industry when, at age five or six, he accompanied his father to sing at local saloons, per the suggestion of his mother, who knew that “a certain percentage of the usual patronage [were] my dad’s many female admirers.” His break came in 1969, when record producer Rick Jarred attended one of his high school band’s gigs in Illinois and offered him a production contract. The ’70s portion of the memoir will be familiar to McDonald’s fans—he moved to Los Angeles, where he joined up with Steely Dan as a background vocalist and keyboardist, and then the Doobie Brothers, as a core group member—but the author enhances these sections with detailed accounts of writing his biggest hits. “Takin’ It to the Streets,” for example, was inspired by a conversation with his socially conscious younger sister. The most powerful sections deal with McDonald’s addiction to drugs and alcohol, which precipitated profound self-loathing that led him, after showing up drunk to his wife’s rehab, to get sober in the mid-1980s. McDonald’s down-to-earth approach gives this rock and roll tell-all more weight than others of its kind. Agent: Rob Weisbach, Rob Weisbach Creative. (May)