Coming
& Going by James Buckley
Oh, What A Night!
Nina Terzian (center) joined Michael McDonald and his wife, Amy Holland, at their table before the concert at the Fuladis’ spacious home
Y
ou would have wanted to be a friend of Bob or Nissy Fuladi sometime around St. Patrick’s Day, as they hosted what will go down as one of the year’s or maybe even the decade’s best and most memorable concerts. The musical extravaganza at the Fuladis’ home in Birnam Wood featured former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald, Alan Parsons, perhaps most noted for his engineering work on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon album but a singularly successful singer-musician in his own right, and renowned cellist Michael Fitzgerald, along with backing by Santa Barbara favorite Randy Tico, and percussionist Pete Korpela. CADA board member Bob Fuladi co-hosted with Bob Bryant and Peter Hilf. Michael McDonald lived in Montecito more than 30 years ago before moving to Santa Ynez Valley. He and his wife, Amy Holland, and their two children, Dylan and Scarlett, then spent nearly 15 years in Tennessee, near Nashville. Michael and Amy moved back to Santa Barbara about five years ago. “We missed Santa Barbara,” McDonald admits as he takes a 15-minute break to chat before the concert, where some 150 eager CADA (Council on Alcohol and Drug Addiction) supporters were waiting. Former Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff Baxter “is the reason I got with the Doobie Brothers,” McDonald says, when asked about the man in the “Pentagon” T-shirt sitting nearby. Long-time rock ‘n’ roller Baxter’s latest gig is as a defense consultant for the U.S. military, hence the T-shirt. Jeff and Michael had worked together in Steely Dan, and when The Doobie Brothers needed to replace a band member who’d gotten ill while on tour, Baxter recommended McDonald fill the slot. Michael flew 30 March – 6 April 2017
to New Orleans and ended up touring with the Doobie Brothers for two years before becoming a permanent member (circa 1975). “He [Baxter] did me a huge favor,” says the gravelly voiced superstar. All three – McDonald, Parsons, and Fitzgerald – donated their time and talent for this event, a fundraiser dedicated to raising enough money to underwrite CADA’s upcoming big fundraiser, the 31st Annual Amethyst Ball, scheduled for April 22 at Bacara Resort & Spa, starring the live L.A. band Walk Like a Man, featuring the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Monies raised at the Amethyst Ball go to the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse’s prevention, education, and treatment programs. McDonald says he went through what now seems almost a rock ‘n’ roll and/or Hollywood stardom ritual: alcohol and drug abuse. He has been sober for the past 30 years. “By the grace of God,” he says humbly, admitting that sobriety changed his life for the better. “But it’s still one day at a time.” As for how it all came about, he says “It was many years of terrifying events... to put it simply, I kept trying to convince myself that I could drink. And, for me – I can only speak for myself – I couldn’t. I just kept lowering the bar until I couldn’t get under it anymore. I just got sick and tired of getting sick and tired. “There is no magic bullet out there,” he says. “Addiction is epidemic in this country. The reason I’m here for CADA tonight is that we need this organization for the epidemic we’re facing. We don’t want addiction to slip back into the shadows, where it has lived for hundreds of years and
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IN OTHER NEWS Page 164 Last year, I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven’t met yet.
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