Christopher Abbott, Chris Harrison & Michael McDonald?

SPEAKER_1 (0:11)

I want to be famous.

Bobby Finger (0:12)

Welcome to Who? Weekly, the podcast where you'll learn everything you need to know about the celebrities you don't. I'm Bobby Finger.

Lindsey Weber (0:17)

I'm Lindsey Weber.

Bobby Finger (0:18)

And adopted St. Louis man discovers his biological father is a Grammy-winning artist. And the Grammy-winning artist is Michael McDonald.

SPEAKER_1 (0:25)

Still, he always wondered who his birth parents were.

Until, the half-brother he didn't know he had did a 23andMe DNA test. And on his 58th birthday, Michael met his birth mother. And later, talked to his birth father on the phone.

Michael Gosling (0:40)

I said, so, tell me about yourself. What do you do? And so he said, well, I'm a musician. And he went on to tell me that, in fact, looks like we'll be touring this summer and we'll be stopping in St. Louis.

SPEAKER_1 (0:54)

So who is Michael's birth father? Well, it's someone you might have heard of, or better yet, it's someone you might have heard on the radio. Yeah, he's kind of well known.

Michael Gosling (1:03)

And then I finally said, are you Michael McDonald? And he said, yeah, I'm afraid so.

SPEAKER_1 (1:12)

Yeah, Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers. The guy who wrote and performed songs like What a Fool Believes and I Keep Forgetting. And the fact that they had the same name was a complete coincidence.

Michael Gosling (1:23)

I was unnamed, so it was my mom Kay who named me.

SPEAKER_5 (1:26)

Can you see me all right?

Michael Gosling (1:27)

I can.

SPEAKER_1 (1:28)

Michael FaceTimed his father so I could ask him about his journey.

SPEAKER_5 (1:31)

I always carried that guilt with me. But just to know that he was okay and that he had a good life and a life, certainly that I wouldn't probably have been able to afford him at that time in my life, you know, was, was, you know, a great reward.

Bobby Finger (1:45)

What's better breaking news than Michael McDonald surprising a man who's 14 years younger than him that he is his father?

SPEAKER_5 (1:52)

Because of 23andMe.

Christopher Abbott (1:53)

That looks just like him.

Lindsey Weber (1:56)

I do wonder if like post, this is not really like who related really, but like post the 23andMe thing when people realize they're giving all their information away or whatever. And then 23andMe gets like bought and sold and like sells it to kind of like McDonald's and then McDonald's uses it bad or something.

Bobby Finger (2:12)

Like we're another McDonald.

Lindsey Weber (2:14)

Right. We're just I just feel like we're not going to have. Oh, I didn't mean it like that.

That McDonald's joke has nothing to do with this McDonald. I'm just saying, I just wonder if we're going to, we're in an era of this happening a lot. And that soon I feel like we might be moving away from kind of the shocking DNA results of it all.

Bobby Finger (2:33)

I have a DNA test in my desk drawer that I've had for like three years that I just never used because I freaked out about giving them my data. So I never sent it.

Lindsey Weber (2:40)

Nice. I don't want something.

Bobby Finger (2:41)

I don't want something like this to happen.

Lindsey Weber (2:43)

He only found out because his cousin of his or brother of his did it. So that's the thing is like, he didn't even do it. This guy did not even do his own DNA test. He just his someone else did.

And they connected him to or his son or something. They connected him to Michael McDonald.

Bobby Finger (3:03)

Yeah. His relative probably did it. His. So the guy who is the son, whose name is Michael Gosling, his name is also Michael. Yes.

Lindsey Weber (3:12)

What if you found out your father was Michael McDonald? You were like, God, I hate that band. You know, like this weird, that'd be so bad.

Bobby Finger (3:20)

What if I found out my mother was Hilary Duff? I'd be like, oh, God damn it. Right.

Lindsey Weber (3:24)

Totally. Because that's exactly, that's a perfect. Yeah. What if you found out you're related to like a pop artist that you've been kind of like dragging for years?

Bobby Finger (3:32)

I really don't like. Yeah. That would be sad. But then I ultimately think it was pretty cool. Honestly, I would get over it in about half a second, I think.

Lindsey Weber (3:40)

Well, would you go to Hilary Duff and be like, mama, I love your music. You're so talented. I've loved it for so long and you're great.