Michael McDonald has spent decades giving the world his voice. He's a member of The Doobie Brothers and together they've sold millions of albums worldwide, but his compassion behind the scenes is what truly defines him. He frequently lends his talent to benefit concerts supporting nonprofit causes such as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
In 2018, he performed a private benefit concert in Montecito, California to support at-risk teens in Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, and other underserved communities. The nonprofit he supported helped young people find purpose through entrepreneurship and art. That night he didn't just sing. He gave $20,000 from his own pocket to help fund youth programs that build confidence, teach real-world skills, and offer hope where it’s needed most.
To understand McDonald's giving, we have to go back in time.
In 1970, the Doobie Brothers formed in San Jose, California, and Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, John Hartman, and later Tiran Porter began playing their first gigs in the Bay Area. McDonald joined in 1975. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, whenever local organizations, schools, hospitals, or community groups asked them to perform, the band almost always agreed. This wasn't PR. Back then, charity concerts weren't televised or posted online. They said yes because they believed musicians should give back.
McDonald and the Doobie Brothers were at the height of their success by 1980. Their album Minute by Minute had sold millions and earned them four Grammy Awards, including Record and Song of the Year for "What a Fool Believes." One day that year, they finished their annual benefit concert at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, California.
Afterwards, they went upstairs to visit a 14-year-old boy with cystic fibrosis that wasn't expected to live much longer. When they walked in, the boy's face lit up. McDonald said, "The boy had to lie face down because that was the only position in which he could still breathe, but he never stopped smiling." He thought to himself, "How can he look so happy when he’s so sick? He's so young."
On February 1, 2005, McDonald wrote about this experience with the sick child in a personal essay for Guideposts, a spiritual nonprofit that publishes inspirational magazines, books, and online content. For years, McDonald struggled with his own happiness. He often turned to drugs and alcohol as a way to cope with persistent sadness. He said it felt like a normal part of the rock-and-roll lifestyle. But what stands out about this personal essay is what he wrote at the very beginning of it.
"I have this recurring dream. I'm driving a car on a racecourse with no one else around. There's a turn up ahead. I try to steer, but I bang into a wall. Then another. Desperately, I try to get control. But it's no use. No matter how hard I try, I keep careening off the walls, losing control," McDonald said on a 2005 personal essay on Guidepost.
Fast-forward 15 years, his wife Amy Holland was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, according to his 2024 memoir What a Fool Believes. McDonald had produced Holland's debut album in 1980, and that's how they were introduced. They got married in 1983 and later had two children, Dylan, born in 1987, and Scarlett, born in 1991.
Holland also struggled with drug and alcohol issues in the past and entered recovery during their marriage, according to McDonald's 2024 memoir.
McDonald now sat in a hospital room holding his wife's hand during a chemo session. "Suddenly she turned to me. Our eyes met and she gave me this sad little smile, as if to say, 'I'm sorry you have to go through this.' Me? I thought. Why is she worried about me?" McDonald said.
That's when he thought about the young boy at the children's hospital all those years earlier. McDonald had written countless songs about love but this moment was where he truly understood love. He describes this powerful moment as "transformative for both of them."
Two years later in 1997, he had another encounter with a sick child at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. But this time, he wasn't playing at a benefit concert. He was at the hospital supporting his wife during Family Week at her treatment program. The night before, he had gotten blackout drunk, and when he tried to enter, McDonald said, "The counselors took one look at me and turned me away at the door—no way was I joining the session like that."
He then wandered through the hospital and encountered a frail 8-year-old boy with leukemia. The boy looked up from his bed and immediately recognized McDonald. The child's eyes lit up just like the 14-year-old boy's had back in 1980. He grabbed McDonald's hand and softly said, "Mr. McDonald… your songs help me when they put the needle in. Please don't stop singing," according to McDonald's memoir.
McDonald broke down crying, and from that day forward, he never reached for a bottle of alcohol again.
Today, Holland has been cancer-free ever since, and both of them have been sober for nearly 30 years. McDonald has said that their faith and their belief in God have played a central role in keeping their family strong and together, according to a 2024 People interview.
For more than five decades, McDonald has helped raise millions of dollars for children's hospitals and organizations that support people living with serious illnesses, including Project Angel Food and God's Love We Deliver.
McDonald proves that true generosity doesn't need a spotlight. The quiet support of his time, money, and his heart has touched lives in ways no hit song ever could. He reminds all of us that the greatest legacy isn't in how successful we are, but in how we help other people. Stay inspired.