MICHAEL MCDONALD’S soulful voice was a key part of such classic Doobie Brothers hits as “Takin’ It to the Streets,” “What a Fool Believes” and “Real Love.” Walk This Road is the 73-year-old singer’s first album of new music with his old bandmates in 45 years.

Q: How important have the Doobies been to your career and life?
It’s what every musician is looking for: an immediate community. The guys in the Doobies are most importantly my friends, and we’re musicians second to that.

Q: What’s it like to write and record again?
It happened so fast. Mostly I was really pleased to get back into the studio with my friends and take a shot at one more studio recording together, and all the guys came up with really wonderful songs.

Q: Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary has you back in the zeitgeist. Is that fun for you?
Some of the guys in the Doobies bristle at the term “yacht rock.” I don’t mind it because I feel in good company—Toto, and all those bands and musicians. I’m lucky to be counted as their colleague in musicianship.

Q: How do you maintain energy for a tour?
Things like, “I left my hearing aids on the bus,” those are the kinds of things we deal with today. Then we get on stage and we’re 19 again for that 90 minutes. All the aches and pains, you don’t even feel them. You do what you always did.
—Jeffrey Lee Puckett