Imagine discovering, in your fifties at the latest, that you are the son of the honey-gargling king of yacht rock. St. Louis resident Michael Goessling recently had such an experience when he discovered he was Michael McDonald’s son. All his life, Goessling knew he was adopted. His parents conceived him when they were both 14 and he was put up for adoption as a baby. But Goessling didn’t learn until much later that one of his parents had become Michael McDonald.
Goessling recently told the story to KCTV, the CBS affiliate in Kansas City. He had a wonderful childhood with his adoptive family and only found out he had a half-brother when he took a 23andMe DNA test. This led Goessling to meet his half-brother and then his biological mother, then to speak on the phone with his biological father. Goessling asked the man what he did for a living, and he responded that he was a musician who would soon be touring St. Louis. Goessling told KCTV: “I said, ‘Are you Michael McDonald?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’m afraid so.'”
Apparently, the two Michaels’ shared first name is a total coincidence. Plus, the fact that McDonald was 14 when Goessling was born is probably why both men in this photo are doing it. not look like a father and a son. (Goessling met his birth mother, whose identity is not public, on his 58th birthday. McDonald is 74.) The report doesn’t say whether people have been telling Goessling for years that he looks like Michael McDonald, but perhaps we can make our own assumptions about that.
McDonald told KCTV, “I’ve always carried that guilt with me. But knowing that he was OK and had a good life, and a life that I certainly couldn’t have given him at that time, was a great reward. The real rock stars in this story are his adoptive parents, who really gave Michael everything a child needs in terms of love and security… It was a wonderful experience to see Michael and meet my son, after all these years of thinking to him.”
The first time Goessling and McDonald met in person, they gave each other a big hug and told each other they loved each other. Upon meeting Goessling, McDonald also discovered he was a grandfather. He said: “It still touches me. What a gift.”
A few years ago, McDonald published What a fool believesa memoir he co-wrote with comedian and actor Paul Reiser; it was the first time he revealed that he had become a father at such a young age. Something similar happened recently with Billy Idol, who opened up about meeting his own long-lost son, also through the 23andMe test, in a documentary last year.
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