The Doobie Brothers mine Southern influences and promote human connection with 'Walk This Road'

The Doobie Brothers are releasing their 16th studio album Walk This Road next month, with a tour extending into the fall.

Formed in California in 1970 and known for hits such as “Black Water,” “What a Fool Believes,” “China Grove” and “Minute by Minute,” the Doobie Brothers have won multiple Grammy Awards, sold 48 million albums and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.

The group’s original sound was influenced by legendary musicians from the South — including right here in Georgia — and its socially conscious side is also being rediscovered.

Tom Johnston and Michael McDonald recently spoke with GPB about the group’s five-decade career and to preview their latest songs.

Co-founder Tom Johnston said the Doobie Brothers built a reputation as a feel-good rock band merging blues, country, and soul into the mix. He remembers writing the group's first big hit, “Listen to the Music,” in 1972.

“There's always stuff going on someplace that might be either problematic or uncomfortable,” he said of the Vietnam War-era times in which the band got its start. “I'm a personal believer in music and the healing power of music and what it can do to make people feel better — just by listening in your car or something, driving down a street, driving down a highway. I remember writing [‘Listen to the Music’]. I wrote it in my room on 12th Street in San Jose, which I rented for $40 a month and had no idea that [it was going to be a hit].”

By the time Michael McDonald joined in 1975 and the group released Takin' It to the Streets a year later, America was dealing with the fallout of war and poverty.

“Well, there was an alarming disparity, ever-growing gap, cracks that people were falling through in bigger numbers all the time,” McDonald said. “Not just in the inner cities, but in the rural areas too. Poverty was always gonna be our enemy and anything we could do to fight that and to help give a leg up to those people suffering the most from it was always going to be in all of our best interests. And that was what the song was about — recognizing that we may come from different backgrounds, and we may not know a lot about each other personally, but to rest assured, we are all the same.”

Walk This Road carries over that theme of searching for understanding and unity, and the title tune features the legendary Mavis Staples.

McDonald said producer John Shanks brought the idea of the title song to him with Staples in mind. The lyric references the band’s long career and reunion as well as the idea of bringing people together in times of division.

“As the song kind of took on longer reach, meaning-wise, for all of us, it seemed so appropriate,” McDonald said of including Staples’ powerful vocals in the bluesy tune. “You know, Mavis is kind of the ambassador, in the last three or four decades in our lifetime, for social conscience. You know, the Staples family — all of their music was about looking for the better part of our collective human nature.”

Other standout tracks from Walk This Road include “Lahaina,” dedicated to the Hawaiian community decimated by the Maui fires in 2023, the delicate “State of Grace,” the lyrically emotional “Speed of Pain” and the fun “Call Me.”

For the first time, Johnston, McDonald, and Pat Simmons contributed several tracks each to the album. As the three primary songwriters for the Doobie Brothers, they will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame together on June 12.

Johnston said the new songs are proof that the West Coast band never lost its affinity for Southern sounds.

“The ‘Three Kings’: Albert, B.B. and Freddie, were huge in my repertoire,” he said of the early influences he brought with him when he cofounded the Doobie Brothers. “But rock and roll was, too: [The genres] kind of all fit together. So yeah, there's definitely some people from Georgia in [that list of influences], and Little Richard, James Brown, and Otis Redding were huge. But also the Allman Brothers. I was a big fan of the Allman brothers, and we played with them a lot — great guys, great band, great music.”

The Doobie Brothers are grateful to be making music after 54 years, and for McDonald. In 2024, "Spotify Wrapped" ranked Atlanta No. 1 among global cities where his listeners stream music.

“Learn to Let Go” is a soulful track from that hearkens back to some of McDonald’s biggest hits.

When asked about the songs and players that have made his career — including artists from Kenny Loggins, Patti LaBelle, James Ingram and Barbra Streisand to Toad the Wet Sprocket and Van Halen, McDonald said the spirit of collaboration is key.

“Most pronounced, I think in my life, it was being with Steely Dan and then with the Doobie Brothers that really afforded me any kind of profile as an artist myself,” McDonald said. “I have those guys to thank for that.”

He said the “curiosity” of working with a variety of players — including Johnston, Simmons, McFee and others — “has always been great for me to know what what's going on there, ‘What could I learn from this?’ You know, there's always something kind of exciting about that.”