Doobie Brothers bringing 5 decades of hits to Tucson

“I think probably when you’re doing songs that were hits, there’s a certain connection with the audience and a lot of kinetic energy that gets released,” he said during a phone call from home in Hawaii last month. “I think those songs, it’s always gratifying when you’re up there and you’ve been doing it for such a long time and people still respond and still feel it and give back to you the enthusiasm that you had hoped for after doing it for nearly 50 years.”

So when he and fellow founding Doobie Tom Johnston take the Centennial Hall stage on Wednesday, April 11, expect to hear their greatest hits plus a few surprises.

The 1970s band, which blurs the line between rock and country, is digging through its extensive archives that include 14 studio albums, five live albums and nine compilation projects to find the songs they rarely, if ever, play live.

“I enjoy playing songs that we incorporate that probably we haven’t played for decades or we have never played live. That’s kind of on our list right now as we go into rehearsals to bring some tunes into the set that we never performed live,” he said days before the band was expected to begin rehearsals for their upcoming summer tour with fellow 1970s rockers Steely Dan. “Those are always fun because they are a little more challenging and there’s less familiarity for everyone, for the band and the audience. To bring those songs in, they are a little edgier I would say and it’s always fun to see how the audience is affected by those kinds of songs.”

He fully expects some of those songs to bomb on their face. No harm, no foul; they’ll dust something else off the shelf and try again, he said.

“If something doesn’t work and you don’t feel the chemistry, you can try something else,” he said.

Of course, it helps that the chemistry has matured over the years due in large part to the band’s makeup. The band has retained much of its original lineup with Simmons, Johnston and multi-instrumental string player John McFee, whose tenure with the band goes back to 1978.

Simmons says they also have a few ringers in the mix who have been with the band for years: Little Feat keyboardist Bill Payne, Vertical Horizon’s drummer Ed Toth, New Grass Revival bass player/guitarist John Cowan and Tower of Power saxophonist Marc Russo. They also are looking to incorporate a percussionist into the lineup, he said.

Simmons was barely out of his teens when he joined the Doobies and — with the exception of the breakup years from 1982 to 1987 — has spent his life playing guitar, writing songs and lending vocals on lead and backup to the band, which turns 50 in 2020.

He’s now 69 and he says he’s having as much fun today as he did when the band started in 1970.

“You get a little fatigued when you’re out on the road for months and months,” he admitted, then added: “We get paid to travel and we play for free.”