Millions of fans have loved The Doobie Brothers hits since the ’70s. and now the band’s main songwriters — Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons and Michael McDonald — are set to be honored for their work with induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday night at a gala in New York City.
Johnston tells ABC Audio the honor is “pretty amazing,” especially when you “think of all the people that are already there.”
“I mean, God, there’s some amazing people in there,” he says. “So to be selected to go in there, it’s something else. I never really thought about it much till it happened, but to have it happen is a whole other ballgame.”
For Simmons, being recognized as a songwriter is “a real payback for all those thousands of hours” they’ve spent writing.
“That kind of acknowledgement is, it’s humbling, to say the least,” he says.
The Doobies hit #1 with “Black Water” and “China Grove,” but McDonald says the song he wrote that really captures what the Doobies were about is “Takin’ It to the Streets.” He describes it as “the closest thing that I ever wrote for the band that maybe rose to the occasion of defining the band in that moment.”
Johnston says it’s hard to pick a song that he’s most proud of, but one of them would definitely be what he calls the “go-to song which started it all”: “Listen to the Music.”
“That was the one that kind of started this band on its upward trajectory,” he says. “And it’s still to this day, people know that song. … They sing a lot of it loud and proud at shows and stuff. It’s amazing.”
The Beach Boys‘ Mike Love and funk legend George Clinton will also be inducted during the ceremony.
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