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October 19, 2025 • 24 mins

It was a tremendous thrill having Patrick Simmons from The Doobie Brothers on and we're happy to share this classic replay celebrating his birthday on October 19th. Happy Birthday Patrick!

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
When Tommy took a leave of absence, Jeff said, well,
I know, how about Mike mcconod. You remember that guy.
I go, yeah, he's great, he goes, what do you
think I go? You should call him. I didn't really
think of anything except Mike was going to be a
background singer and I was gonna end up having to
take over the lead vocals slot and pleasantly surprised that

(00:22):
Mike was a great singer and kind of took the
weight off my shoulders.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast with your host
Buzz Night. Buzz explores the fascinating stories and journeys of
some of the most iconic figures in music today. He's
joined by a true legend of rock and roll, Patrick Simmons,
the guitarist and vocalist of the legendary band The Doobie Brothers.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
With a career spanning over.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Five decades, Patrick has been part of some of the
most memorable hits in rock history. Here's Buzz Night and
Patrick Simmons on the Taking a Walk Podcast.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Patrick Simmons, great to have you on Taking a Walk.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
You Ke Bus, great to be here. Appreciate your taking
the time.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
So since the podcast is called taking a Walk, if
you could take a walk with someone living or dead,
it doesn't have to be in the music world, but
it certainly could be.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Who would it be and where would you take a walk?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I'd probably take a walk with Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter,
and I don't care where we walk. We don't have
to walk where you just stand there wherever they want
to walk. That's where I'd be going.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's a powerful group, man.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
You get the Secret Service out of the way, and
you guys could have some peace and quiet.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Right, Yeah, we don't need it.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
So talk about the beginning of the journey, the Patrick
Simmons Doobie Brothers journey. How did it start and how
did you first become a Doobie.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, let's see, Well, I was living in San Jose.
I grew up in San Jose. I was, you know,
been playing around town since I was a young teenager,
clubs and stuff around the area. And you know, I've
been in quite a few different bands, you know, high

(02:16):
school bands and stuff, and a little bit when I
was in college and I was playing a club one
night in a suburb of San Jose and I got
booked with Skip Spence and the band that he had
at the time, and it turns out that the band

(02:39):
was made up of Skip. Skip was a guitar player
with a band called Moby Grape he had and it
was also the first drummer for the Jefferson Airplane. But anyway,
I had a little duo with another guy and we
opened the show and Skip was there with his band,

(02:59):
which was John Hartman on drums, who later became the
first Doobie Brother drummer, Tom Johnston guitar player for the
Doobies eventually, and another guy that they had planned bass
at the time, And so we did a set and
then Skipping the guys did a set, and after I

(03:21):
knew Skip, I was friends with him, and so I
went up afterwards to say hi, and he introduced me
to Tom and John, which was really cool. I really
you know, they were great guys, and that was sort
of my introduction to those guys. And John informed me
that they were putting together a band and they were

(03:42):
trying to find some of the players. Would I be
interested And I said no, I had a band of
guys that I was playing with at the time, but
I would love to come and hang out because I
really like them as musicians, and I really thought they

(04:04):
were great, both of them, and I thought Skip was
going to be a part of it. In turns how
Skip wasn't. So anyway, I started hanging out with the
guys Tom and John, just going over there and you know,
jamming once in a while and hanging out. We became friends,
and I don't know, it was probably six months later

(04:24):
something like that, they had a gig at a club
in town called the Chateau Libertay, which I had played
at with some of the guys prior to that time,
but that was their first gig. And they said, hey,
we you know, would you be interested. We need somebody
to kind of help us round out the set, and

(04:44):
we need some more songs to do an evening of music.
Would you feel like coming and sitting in with us
and playing we can rehearse, And so I said sure.
And so we were sitting around smoking some kind of
herb herbal substance.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
God's Green Earth as Henry Dilts.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Exactly, and one of the guys who lived in the
house there said, God, you guys smoke so much of weed.
You should call yourselves the Doobie Brothers, and so we said, oh,
that's a good idea. We don't have a name. So
we booked ourselves as the Doobie Brothers from this first
gig at the Chateau Libertay, which we became kind of
the house band after that. We ended up going back

(05:31):
there countless times and playing. But that was our first gig,
and that was you know, we were the Doobie Brothers
on day one.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
And this guy Dino Rosen Keith Dinoh Rosen.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
I believe he's the guy that suggested you call yourself
the Doobies.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (05:50):
It is correct, yeah, But.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
You thought you might find another name for the band.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Absolutely, you know, we thought that was a silly, you
know name that was just for that night. And then
you know, we got a great favorable reaction at the
club when we played, and so we thought, well, you know,
and they asked us back. You know, hey, you got
you know, immediately called us and want us to come
back and play. So we thought, well, gosh, everybody thinks

(06:17):
we're the Doobie Brothers. We'll get to hang stick with
that name for a while anyway, And we thought, you know,
when we got when we start shopping a record deal.
We went to several few different record labels, and we
thought by the time we maybe if if we got
a deal, that we'd probably end up changing our name.

(06:38):
But Warner Brothers signed us and they really liked the name.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
So were there any second or third choice names that
you remember?

Speaker 2 (06:48):
No, I don't think we ever after that. We never
really well, we thought it was going to be a problem,
you know, because the it was a little early in
the the pot scene for you know, a lot of
people were smoking pod. But you know, now it's like
everybody smokes pot. We don't even smoke pot anymore. We're

(07:10):
kind of over it. Well everybody else I know.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Does It's funny how times have changed. Gambling's legal, pot's legal?

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Right, Yeah, would have thought, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
So the band dynamics certainly were interesting when you guys
ran into this guy Jeff Skunk Baxter, right, which which
was an interesting time. How the Doobies and sort of
Steely Dan became intertwined. Can you talk about that period

(07:43):
when you first encountered Skunk and certainly he had a
great influence on the band.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
We had, you know, a lot of shows with Steely Dan,
probably seventy two nineteen seventy two, we went on the
road and we did a number of shows with this.
It was see it was Marshall Tucker opened, Steely Dan played,

(08:12):
We played, and then Savoy blues band Kim Simmons, they
were the headliners. And so that was the bill, four bands,
and it was a bit large bill, and we did
a number of shows with with that, all those guys,
and then we played some other shows later on with STEELYE. Dan,

(08:36):
I think with the Beach Boys maybe and some other
some other bands. But we got to be friends with
those guys, and particularly Jeff, who's really you know, was
very outgoing, and at that time Jeff was living in
LA I think most of the guys were living in
la but Jeff would had really gotten into the scene

(08:59):
there doing sessions and stuff around town. And I particularly
got to be friends with Jeff and I you know,
when I would get down, I'd call him and I'd
go buy and we'd hang out. And he had a
little apartment in Hollywood there and I would go visit
him and at some point I said, you know, would
you come in and play some steel on a song

(09:22):
that I have. And so that was the Captain and
me a song called South City Midnight Lady, and he's not,
of course, and so I came in and played him
the song, and which you know, further solidified our in
a relationship.

Speaker 5 (09:39):
When we would come to town, you know, I called him,
I say, hey, Jeff, come on down. You know you
want to come and hang out, you know, sit in
with us if you want, you know, be like jammin
on something. So he would sit in and play with
us from time to time here and there when we
were in the area.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
And then it got to be like whenever we played anywhere,
he would show up. Anywhere in California, there was Jeff
and he would make the trip.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
You know, we'll be right back with more of the
Taking a Walk Podcast friends.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
And so that was it, and then.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Later welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
He left Steely Dan and was kind of like hanging around.
I think Tyrone, I think the bass player said, Jeff,
you know, why don't you come and play with us
and j ty ass Tom and myself. You know, what
do you think about to having Jeff sit in with
us and and Hartman as well. And at that time

(10:38):
we had Michael Hassak playing drums and two drummers at
that point, but it was mainly you know, John and
Tom and myself that had you know, founded the band.
And Tyrone said, you know, what do you think about
having Jeff playing with us? And everybody said yeah, because
we have this relationship with the Moby Grape, you know,
and I mentioned Skip Spence Skip. We always had this vision.

(11:03):
We loved the three guitars, and they all were just extinct,
distinct kind of players. You know. Jerry was kind of
this country sort of the bop player, and Peter Lewis
was this picker and uh who else the oh and
Skip was just kind of crazy rock and roller. So

(11:25):
we kind of had those elements. You know. I was
kind of a little country, you know, not be bop exactly,
but I like, you know, played the blues, and Jeff
was a great kind of be bopper, and then Tommy
was a hard rocking guy. And so we had all
the elements that we were looking that we you know,
sort of projected on ourselves to be that kind of

(11:45):
a band with the three guitar players. So having Jeff,
you know, kind of it was a natural progression. So
Jeff went became a member and was for along quite
a while, and Ultimate.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
Lee made the recommendation for Michael McDonald to join the band.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (12:05):
He did? I had been to see Steely Dan soon
after Michael joined the band. He was they brought him on.
They had about three, three or four background singers at
one point. Royce Jones was the guy. David Palmer had
been in there at the beginning, and then they had

(12:26):
a gal that was singing back up, maybe more than one.
And Mike had been brought into just sing backgrounds and
play keyboards, and I thought he was fantastic. And then
Jeff mentioned when Tommy took a leave of absence, just said, well,
I know, how about Mike McConaughey. Remember that guy. I go, Yeah,
he's great. He goes, what do you think? I go?

(12:48):
You should call him? And so Mike joined, and you know,
we had that we had a new element, which we
all kind of liked because we had a lot of
keyboards on our songs in the studio. So you know,
that was for me a great attraction right there. But
I didn't really think of anything except Mike. Mike was
going to be a background singer and I was going

(13:09):
to end up having to take over the lead vocals
slot and pleasantly surprised that Mike was a great singer
and kind of took the weight off my shoulders. And
it turned out he was just you know, a super talent.
So he more than took the weight off my shoulders.
He took the spotlight, which was fine with me. I

(13:34):
loved everything you did, and he brought us a wonderful
element to the band.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
And then taking it to the streets with an incredible
album nineteen seventy six produced by Ted Templeman.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
How did you encounter Ted?

Speaker 4 (13:53):
And then when you think about the whole process of
putting together taking it to the streets, what can you
tell me about that? It was really, you know, such
an amazing point in the Doobie Brothers career.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
When we actually we hadn't been signed to Warner Brothers yet,
but they, you know, they were interested in the band,
and they sent Lenny Warrenker, who was you know, became
actually the president I think of Warner Brothers at one point,
and Ted was sort of a new producer there at

(14:29):
the label, and they he was sort of under Lenny
had ticket him under his wing and was you know,
teaching the ropes and so they both came to see
us play. We played at the Chateau, which was you know,
at that point we were the house band more or less.
So so Ted and Lenny flew up San Jose and

(14:51):
came to see it that Chateau, and they were these
two really straight looking guys in the club, and you know,
it was a frequented by you know, the Hell's Angels.
There were always a dozen Hells Angels in the club,
and you know, all the outrageous mountain people, hippies, you know,

(15:12):
dressed in you know, crazy outfits, and just a real
wild scene, people smoking weed openly in the club or
outside the door anyway. And so you know, their eyes
were as big as saucers and club I looked across,
I knew it was them immediately. They were sitting at
the stable across the room and Sauce play and they

(15:36):
love this. And they had already, you know, really liked
the demo we sent them, but seeing us play solidified
our commitment or their you know, Warner's commitment to us.
So they produced our first record together, and then we
went on to do a second record, and Lenny bout

(15:57):
out and let Ted take over. So Ted all our
records from then on up through One Step Closer, so
he did eight or ten records for us. Ted was
fabulous producer, He just really was really great. The difference
between our first album and our second album or Day
and Night. Not that Lenny wasn't a great producer, but

(16:20):
he had a different vision for kind of who we
were in our identity, and Ted had a better vision for,
you know, how to make us more appealing to an audience.
And so that's that was how we got together with Ted.
An album before taking to the streets. I think it

(16:41):
was Stampede had been the album before, and we were
kind of on a roll every album that we put out.
You know, we did pretty well at we had some
successful commercial songs, and you know, the audience was growing
all the time. And then Tommy was out, and of
course we were all like, oh no, what are we

(17:03):
going to do now? And Ted said, well, you know,
my vision is you're going to have to take over
the bulk of the writing and the singing pat and
we'll see where it goes from there. And when I
heard Mike sing, I got well, this guy is a
super talent and I think he can bring something new

(17:25):
to the band. And it's It was a leap of
faith on my part and a huge leap of faith
or Ted and the label and I basically had to
talk kind of talk him into it. Ted didn't take
much talking into things with Ted once he heard Mike
sing and heard his songs. Ted knows good music when

(17:49):
he hears it, and a good song, so, you know,
we just kind of went forward. We knew we had
to make a change because Tommy was, you know, he
wasn't feeling well well and he was kind of he
had lost his passion for the band. He really was
kind of intent on seeking his own path and wanted

(18:11):
to try some other things. And I get that. We
got it at the time, but at the same time,
we didn't know where we're going to go with things.
As it turned out, you know, we landed on our feet.
But fan goodness for Mike, thanks to Ted for seeing
the potential, and thanks to Warner Brothers for allowing us

(18:33):
to make the change. They weren't confident of it at all,
and in fact, the head of promotions had approached me
prior to that record coming out and sort of read
me the riot act and what did I think I
was doing? You know? Who did I think I was?
And I tried to explain to him that, you know,

(18:54):
this wasn't something that that I was hoping for or
trying to promote. It was just what we were left
with and we were making the best of it. Luckily,
that guy got shown the door, not because of anything
I said, but I think he probably opened his mouth

(19:14):
too many times to say the similar thing to other
people about their endeavors, and so they let him go.
We had a new guy that again saw our potential
and got behind it. So I mean, it was pretty
much where we thought we were going to be treading water.
We were, they were strong, So was up from there

(19:39):
and we're lucky, to say the.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
Least, and sale and strong. Patrick Simmons into twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
Five with a new album and tell me about that project,
how you're feeling about it, and then ultimately you guys
will be hitting the road and going out to your
loyal fan in base.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
The road is our is our master. The albums walked
this road and that was a song that Mike wrote
with John Shanks, kind of a gospel inspired tune if
you will, pretty rockin gospel blues kind of thing, and
we all sang, we all played. It was really, you know,

(20:24):
a great moment for us because really Tom and Mike
and myself, we haven't put this much into a record
as the three of us as writers like ever, so
this is you know, like having a new direction, if
you will. We worked a little bit on taking it

(20:44):
to the streets, but Tom didn't really contribute much that
in the way of writing and a minimal amount of
playing this record. Everybody contributed and there's a lot more
going on in terms of contribution from three of us,
and then John McPhee is as usual playing his butt off.

(21:05):
But yeah, it's just a great moment for the band.
Everybody contributed songs, work closely with the producer to make
it happen. We work with each other, you know, very
supportive process that we had, and you know, it's nice

(21:28):
to have new music to play for the audiences, you know,
I think that's probably it's always something at least for us,
and I've got to thickets common for most most bands.
You like, you'll love to have something new to play
for folks. Whether it's going to be something they're going
to attach themselves to or not, it's still you know,

(21:49):
you're attached to it, and it's meaningful and there's a
lot more passion, if you will, in those moments when
you have the opportunity to play some new songs for
people and you know, see how it goes and see
how people respond to that. We have been doing Walk
This Road and it didn't get great response. And in

(22:12):
my opinion, it's it's a it's a great song and
and I love it. We have. By the way, Mayvis
Staples sings on the track too, I think she'd knock
my songs up. See I oop, I have no sock
sign and I love that. So that's outstanding, you know,

(22:35):
Mavis is so fantastic. But anyway, as I started to say,
it's a great song, but I don't think it isn't
the best live track that we have. We got some great,
great songs that I think are going to translate in
a live setting that they're going to be really great

(22:56):
for us. So you know, again, it's always it's always
fun to have new music. And I think our core
audience appreciates that. The average person, they just play us
the hits. You know, I just want to hear that.
I just want to live go down memory Lane and
we get that and we'd love that, you know, the
opportunity we have as well. But like I say, the

(23:16):
moments are probably the most fun. Or when you get
placed some new music and your a little off balance
when you're doing that, I think that's important as a
musician to have to be a little bit unsure about
where things are going, and they try that much harder,
you know though, I think that's important.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Patrick Simmons, I'm so grateful that you came on Taking
a Walk. It's a real thrill and I'm so appreciative
for the music you and the band continue.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
To give us.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
It's the soundtrack of our life and it continues to
just lift us up and make us feel good. I'm
really grateful you took the time to be on, Patrick.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, so nice of you. Buzz and walk this road.
We're walking walking that road with you right now.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Perfect. Thank you, Patrick, I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Thank you. Bus.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
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a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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Lynn Hoffman

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