The Doobie Brothers Keep On Rollin’ To The Rock Hall

In just nine short years, the Doobie Brothers became one of the most enduring bands by deftly straddling AM and FM radio. Whether the Cajun stomp of “Black Water,” the revved-up surge of “China Grove” or the Motown-dusted soul balladry of “What A Fool Believes,” they forged a euphoric take-it-on-the-road freedom. Put down the windows, turn up the volume, press the accelerator just a little harder.

Generations have passed their copies of Toulouse Street, The Captain & Me, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Stampede, Takin’ It To The Streets, Livin’ On The Fault Line, Minute By Minute and One Step Closer from sibling-to-sibling, parent-to-child and cool-uncle-to-equally-cool-niece. The binding power of the Doobies can be found at any wedding, bar or bat mitzvah or graduation party with multi-generations and a disc jockey; like Earth, Wind & Fire, they fill up a dance floor with everybody rocking out, playing air guitar, jumping up and down and howling along with unabashed abandon.

Though radio staples, the truth of the Doobies was always in their live shows. Anyone who witnessed the band that began at Santa Cruz’ Chateau Liberte on one of their herculean cross-country tours in the ‘70s was pummeled into a limp state of “how the hell do I get home?” from the double-drummer pelt of Moby Grape devotee John Hartman, surging Tom Johnston growl’n’guitar attack and the pungently funky roots drive of Patrick Simmons’ many instruments. To say they left it all onstage is an understatement.

But unlike the Allman Brothers, where the jamming was what everyone talked about, the Doobies demonstrated a musical excellence that was matched – or perhaps even superceded by their earworm sense of songs. 

“We are basically an American band. We cover blues, R&B, country, bluegrass, rock & roll,” the ever-modest Tom Johnston has offered on multiple occasions. “ It’s based on rhythms, rhythm structures, picking and harmonies. That’s been the signature of the band.”

Simmons concurs, “We had all been playing music for a long time before we put a band together, and our roots are what comes out. Those influences take over whatever conceptual ideas you might have. It’s always been that way with this band. You always return to who you really are.”

Who they were, mostly, were unrepentant road warriors. 

Fleshed out by Michael Hossack as a second drummer and Tiran Porter’s deep bottom on the bass, the Doobies were rocking. Adding Keith Knudsen later on drums maintained the torque that allowed this band to work for fans of hard rock as well as the more pop folks clinging to their radio.

Playing over 500 shows in three years to galvanize their place in the galaxy of rock stars, the Doobies weren’t afraid to do what it took – and the people responded in kind. 

Two private jets took them across the country. Rehearsals were often in Winterland. Their albums found double platinum success when that was a fairly rare notion, especially for a band who eschewed persona in favor of music forward. So much so, Creem titled a 1975 profile “The Reward of Facelessness.”

Motorcycles, playing gigs, writing songs, heading into the studio, heading back out onto the road took its toll. Stadium and arena plays be damned, by 1975, Johnston was sidelined for bleeding ulcers as their “Stampede Tour” kicked off.

With Steely Dan veteran Jeff “Skunk” Baxter throwing his lot in with the band, the show went on. The sax player told Rolling Stone in a 1975 profile as the tour kicked off, “When I joined the Doobies, I found out, ‘Hey, this band makes good music, turns people on, makes them feel good and makes friends wherever they go.’”

Beyond the bonhomie, Baxter was also aware just how large the shoes Johnston left to fill actually were. Having always been a welcoming group to musical guests – the Memphis Horns, Arlo Guthrie, Maria Muldaur, Norton Buffalo and Herb Pederson – he suggested Steely Dan alum Michael McDonald to pick up some of the slack.

The dusty-voiced power singer solved a couple issues. Not only could he step in as a full-fledged vocalist, his ability on keyboards would resolve their “loaner” status with Bill Payne of Little Feat. If McDonald’s influences were a bit more Motown and a little less Harley Davidson, none of the urgency was lost on “Takin’ It To The Streets” or the stop/start soul of “It Keeps You Running.”

The tours kept a-rolling, the band played on. Sometimes momentum pins you to the wall, but somehow the Doobies walked the line between the toll of life on the road and the commitment to the fans and their music.

As Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Foundation Chairman Joel Peresmen remembers of his own youth, “Well, since I was in high school, I was a huge Doobie Brothers’ fan. I mean The Captain and Me and Toulouse Street – I remember buying those albums and going to see them in concert when I was … They were my heroes when I was a kid, growing up, they were the music that I listened to and really liked.”

Landing in Austin, Texas, during college, Peresman found himself in even closer proximity to the future Rock Hall inductees. He recalls fondly, “When I was living in Austin in the late ‘70s, I lived in this apartment complex. By coincidence, most of their road crew used to live in the same apartment complex, and they were off the road. These guys were like a full-time party. It was hilarious.”

It’s also quietly daunting. Two No. 1s, five Top 10s, 16 Top 40 hits, as well as five decades of AOR and jukebox dominance. Their 1976 Best Of… is diamond certified, having sold well over 11 million copies. On Spotify alone, “Listen To The Music” is closing in on a quarter billion streams, and “Long Train Runnin’” is over 167-plus million streams with “What A Fool Believes” sitting pretty at just under 118 million streams.

As the next wave line-up solidified, yacht rock was born. Synths, subtle rhythmic shifts instead of the rushing grooves that propelled listeners, there was a foundation for a more soulful kind of CHR/Hot Adult approach. No band embodies the high tide ease and immersion of the early ‘80s like latter-day Doobies. Writing with Kenny Loggins, “Fool” was steamy denial, it’s ubiquity on all radio formats was inescapable. “Fool” would win one of two Grammys from Minute By Minute’s four nominations; the title track would take Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

Even at Hot AC, the Doobies could dig in with the best of them. Simmons/McDonald’s “Depending on You” packed the urgency needed for the Madison Square Garden two-night stand of Musicians United for Safe Energy’s  (MUSE) No Nukes benefit concert. Captured on film and as part of a mult-disc soundtrack that included MUSE founders Jackson Browne, John Hall, Graham Nash and Bonnie Raitt, as well as Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Nicolette Larson, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Gil Scott Heron, Raydio, Chaka Khan and Tom Petty, the all-star finale of “Takin’ It To The Streets” defined the convergence of activism and rock spectrum of the late ‘70s.

As the’80s dawned, multi-instrumentalist John McFee was drafted to join the band. A session keystone – sometimes with his band Clover – for Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey, Elvis Costello’s My Aim Is True, Rick James’ Throwin’ Down, Carlene Carter’s Musical Shapes and Steve Miller’s Fly Like an Eagle, he offered a hybrid approach to what he played. With that sort of range, One Step Closer continued the band’s eclecticism in even more divergent ways.

“The one thing that’s always been true about the Doobies,” McFee offers, “is there’s this avoidance of limiting the music stylistically. It’s always been about making the best music, no boundaries involved.”

By 1982, the band was ready for another kind of life. Calling it quits, they headed in separate directions. 

After a 1987 Los Angeles Times poll found Led Zeppelin and the Doobie Brothers were the two groups people wanted to get back together, Knudsen harnessed the moment to raise funds for the Vietnam Veterans Aid Foundation. 

Calling everyone who’d ever played with the storied band, they reconvened at the Hollywood Bowl for two shows that year. When the Bowl had its fastest sellout since The Beatles, a small tour was organized.

From that tour, music started flowing. McDonald’s AC/CHR career and Knudsen/McFee’s country stint with Southern Pacific kept them from the original reunion. Cycles, the Johnston/Simmons/Hossack/Hartmen/Porter project, dropped and was certified gold in 1989. Over time, Knudsen and McFee would be reabsorbed – and the band of brothers played on.

Even more thrilling than the subsequent studio albums and live projects that proved the Doobies as vital and buoyant as ever, Michael McDonald joined the band onstage at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium for an encore of “Takin’ It To The Streets” during their Toulouse Street celebration show. The Music City audience went wild. So, on Nov. 18, 2019 from the Ryman stage, they announced a 50th Anniversary Tour for 2020.

Postponed until sometime in 2021, this tour will be the first time Johnston, McDonald, McFee and Simmons have toured together. With so many things in our world uncertain, the joy their music has delivered for half a century is one of the few things one can count on.

Over the miles, the changes, the generations, the Doobies remain. Brothers in music, in braiding influences into a single sound that is wholly their own, it’s a long way from biker bars and rocking hard to the Hall of Fame. Somehow, someway – largely those fans forged from taking the music to the people – here they are. s