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Michael McDonald on participating in 30 Rock's 'Kidney Now' song and episode: 'My initial reaction was, what the hell are you talking about?'

“Everybody knew our function was our pathetic comic value, not our musical talent.”

Since Jack isn’t a suitable donor himself, he concocts the next best thing: a celebrity charity concert called “Kidney Now!” to outsource the problem to a benevolent soul with an organ to spare. But the full extent of the sonic power isn’t realized until the first chord strikes on “He Needs a Kidney,” when we see Sheryl Crow, Adam Levine, Sara Bareilles, and none other than Michael McDonald crooning together on the TGS stage. You could hear a pin drop in this room full of musicians going, “Oh my God, that’s so sad, we’re sorry, Wyclef.” And then he ended it with, “Nah, I’m just bullshitting you.” He lowered the boom on all of us with “I just wanted to see how you would all react if I said that.” So that broke the ice for everyone.

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