It’s not unusual for artists who are writing autobiographies to use a co-writer or a ghost writer, but Michael McDonald tapped an Emmy-nominated actor to help pen his memoir: Paul Reiser.
The Mad About You and Stranger Things star was a fan of the Doobie Brothers singer, but after they met, they became friends and even played together. Like Michael, Reiser is a pianist — he co-wrote “Final Frontier,” the theme song for Mad About You. Reiser tells People that he joked that Michael should write a book so he wouldn’t have to constantly ask him about of his career.
According to Reiser, Michael told him, “I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know how you start that.” So, notes Reiser, during the spring of 2020, they began writing the book together over Zoom. It’s called What a Fool Believes and will be out May 21.
“The thing that was the most daunting was wondering if there ever even was a story there,” McDonald tells People. “Because my story really, I’ve always felt, existed more in the people I worked with. That was really basically my story. It wasn’t really so much about me as my good fortune to work with a lot of different people.”
“But as we kind of moved along, the story emerged for me, and I think for the first time, I understood my own story a little better on a more personal level,” he adds.
In the book, McDonald covers his years in Steely Dan and the Doobies, his many collaborations with other artists, and his struggles with addiction and insecurity.
Now that the book is done, Reiser says he and McDonald are writing a song together and are considering creating a Broadway musical.
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