Seventies classic rockers The Doobie Brothers reunited over the weekend to help guitarist Pat Simmons put a new deck on his house, replacing the one he and son his Josh tore down over the Labor Day weekend.Numerous Doobies, some of whom have been out of the picture since 1972's Toulouse Street, gathered at Simmons' home shortly after 9:00 AM on Saturday, armed with circular saws, hammers, and plenty of salty stories from The Road.
Guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, late of Steely Dan, quickly installed himself as "Railing Master" and predicted that the finished deck would be the group's "most lasting creation since Minute By Minute," the 1978 release which spent five weeks at number one and spawned the hit single "What A Fool Believes."
While former singer Michael McDonald was unable to attend the build, he did arrange to have six large pizzas and some Coke Zero delivered to his former band mates around 12:30.
Citing "previous commitments," "Skunk" Baxter and drummer John Hartman departed mid-afternoon and were replaced by ex-Clover guitarist John McFee, session drummer Chet McCracken and former Moby Grape saxophonist Cornelius Bumpus, who took over work on the stairs.
Vocalist/guitarist Tom Johnston, who left before noon complaining of a stomach ailment, returned late in the day to help with the clean up.
After thanking the Brothers for all their help, Simmons told them they were all invited back the following Sunday "if [they] felt like doing some staining." Briefly, there was talk of ordering some take-out and maybe even taking a run at "China Grove," but everyone looked pretty tired, and a decision was made to call it a night.
Simmons' wife, Cris, turned off the outside light before the last Doobie was out of the driveway.
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