Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is out to prove that he’s a very modern triple-threat kind of star. But in the former professional wrestler’s meaty hands, that trifecta includes body slams, acting and, based on his touching new pop ballad, singing.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
The burly movie star known for his bulging biceps and ping-ponging between intense action movies and family-friendly fare is firmly dipping his toe into the music world with the release of his sweet girl dad tune “Your Dad.” The song, co-written with 2023 American Idol winner Iam Tongi, appears on the brand new Moana: Voices Across the Ocean album, a companion to the recent big screen live-action Moana reboot.
“My, my whole life changed/ From the moment I held you in my heart I knew/ That life would never be the same,” Johnson sings in a whispery voice over gently plucked acoustic guitar on the song whose video features home movies of Johnson loving on his three daughters. “Now you go move those mountains/ And sail across the oceans/ Go show the world and prove/ There’s nothing you can’t do,” he encourages them.
Speaking to Rolling Stone about his pivot to music, Johnson — who provided a pugnacious intro and random shout-outs on the 2000 Wyclef Jean song “It Doesn’t Matter” and proved he could actually carry a tune on the Lin-Manuel Miranda-written “You’re Welcome” from the 2016 original animated Moana — said that he couldn’t help but sing given his background.
“I always like to say I sing from the heart — and I sing in keys that don’t exist. So it’s a good combo,” he joked. “Growing up, in our family, and generally in Polynesian families, there is a lot of singing and there’s a lot of ceremonial dancing and things like that. So it was kind of in the ether as I was growing up.”
Citing such childhood influences as Sam Cooke, Elvis, George Jones and Willie Nelson, who, not for nothing, gave him his first guitar — one of only 100 replicas of the country icon’s trusty Martin “Trigger” instrument — Johnson copped to a somewhat thin songwriting résumé to date. He did cite a “little bit” of help he gave rapper Tech N9ne on the 2020 song “Face Off,” and said that when it came time to put the new Moana companion album together with is wife Lauren, and fellow producers Tiana and Kayla, he called up fellow Hawaiian Tongi to see what he had cooking.
He said Tongi came back two days later with “My Dad,” which just perfectly hit the spot. “I heard it and got very emotional and I was crying, because it’s a song that he wrote singing to his young kids that he doesn’t have yet — he’s getting married in a couple of months — about his dad that passed away,” said Johnson. “And he’s telling his kids, ‘Oh, your grandfather was amazing.; And then the other part of the song is then he sings to his dad, who’s in heaven. He tells his dad, ‘Hey, I’m gonna tell them that you moved mountains, and you fought giants.’ I have chills.”
He loved the song, but told Tongi he wasn’t quite ready to sing the song to his fellow former professional wrestler dad, the late Rocky Johnson, with whom he had a “complicated” relationship. So he asked Tongi if they could rework it to be about Johnson’s daughters, Simone Alexandra, 24, Jasmine Lia, 10 and Tiana Gia, 8.
And while the movies and the ring have been his major career vehicles to date, Johnson said music has always been “an anchor” for him. He noted that traditional country music has specifically been his north star and that that is something “we’re exploring now.” Mentioning that he lived in Nashville as a teen and tried to sneak into bars on Broad Street to hop on the mic (to no avail given his age), Johnson described his potential lane as old-school soul with some country flavor, think Sam-Cooke- meets-Merle-Haggard.
But for now, he has “Your Dad,” and unlike his mega-budget franchise movies, when it comes to this song, he said it’s fine if it’s just for him and his daughters. “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,” he said.
Watch the “Your Dad” video below.
