Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has spent thirty years being told he can sing. He is finally doing something about it.
Johnson told Rolling Stone that he is looking seriously at a music career, and that the genre pulling at him is not the one his WWE run would suggest.
I’m exploring that now, and I appreciate you asking that. As you roll along in life, I’ve been real fortunate to be part of some really cool projects, and love it. But music has always been such an anchor for me, and very specifically in genres that I love, like country music, traditional country music. And we’re exploring that now.
It is not a new interest. Johnson wanted to be a country star as a teenager and cites Sam Cooke, Elvis, George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Paycheck among his influences. His only prior musical footprint of any size is “You’re Welcome” from the animated Moana and part of “Face Off” with Tech Nine.
The occasion is “Your Dad,” a song he co-wrote with 2023 American Idol winner Iam Tongi and dedicated to his three daughters. It sits on Moana: Voices Across the Ocean, a companion album to the live-action film that was released on July 31. Johnson executive produced it with his wife Lauren Hashian, film choreographer Kayla Fa’amaligi and associate producer Tiana Nonosina Liufau. Hashian came up with the project.
Johnson framed the song as the rare thing he has made with nothing riding on it.
I’ve reached this point in my life and in my career where, honestly, Brian, when I wake up in the morning, I swing my legs out of bed, and whatever the thing is that I’m doing, I wanna feel like I’m just running towards it.
But this song, for me, is just a song to my daughters. Where there’s no pressure of an expectation to deliver something that, “Well, how are the sales, and how’s the box office? And how’s the streams?” It’s just from me to them.
The box office question is not abstract for him right now. Live-action Moana, which Johnson starred in and produced, opened to $43.1 million domestically against a reported $250 million budget and has taken roughly $191 million worldwide. It sits alongside Snow White at the bottom of Disney’s live-action remakes.
