What a fool believes : a memoir
(Book)

Includes discography (pages 315-322).

In his candid, freewheeling memoir, written with his friend, the Emmy Award-nominated actor and comedian Paul Reiser, Michael tells the story of his life and music. A high school dropout from Ferguson, Missouri, Michael chased his dreams in 1970's California, a heady moment of rock opportunity and excess. As a rising session musician and backing vocalist, a series of encounters would send him on a wild ride around the world and to the heights of rock stardom, from joining Steely Dan and becoming a defining member of The Doobie Brothers to forging a path as a breakout solo R&B artist. Interwoven with the classic music, Michael tells a deeply affecting story of losing and finding himself as a man. Michael reckons with the unshakeable insecurities that drove him, the drug and alcohol addictions that plagued him, and the highs and lows of popularity. Along the way he relays the lessons he's learned, and that if he's learned anything at all it's that there's often little correlation between what you get and what you deserve.