Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Is Exploring a Country Music Career With an ‘American Idol’ Winner—and a Little Help From Willie Nelson

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is entering a new era—a musical one. The former pro wrestler turned actor is adding another section to his resumé with the release of “Your Dad.”

Johnson penned the track alongside American Idol winner Iam Tongi for Moana: Voices Across the Ocean, a compilation album for the recently-released live action Moana film.

The project started when Johnson agreed to produce the album alongside his wife, Lauren Hashian. Eventually, fellow producers Tiana Nonosina Liufau and Kayla Fa’amaligi told Johnson that they wanted him to sing a song on it too.

“I thought about it, and then I thought, ‘God, I don’t know what I can sing here.’ And I said, ‘I feel like I’d love to partner up with somebody who can help me write and put something together,’” Johnson told Rolling Stone. “So I called Iam Tongi and I said, ‘Hey brother, do you have anything in mind that maybe it’s already in your brain, in your heart, that we could make mine?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I think I do.’”

A few days later, Tongi sent Johnson the song that would later become “Your Dad.”

“I heard it and got very emotional and I was crying,” Johnson said of the track, which Tongi penned to his future kids and with his late dad in mind.

Johnson had a complicated relationship with his own late dad, so he asked Tongi if they could rework the track as a tribute to his daughters. From there, the song came together “on a cellular level,” Johnson said.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Musical History

While Johnson’s move into music may be surprising to some, he grew up singing and dancing with his Polynesian family

“At a very early age, my deep influences were Sam Cooke, Elvis [Presley], George Jones, Merle Haggard, even Johnny Paycheck,” he said. “Guys like that who just were on top of their genres.”

Johnson also counted Willie Nelson as a major influence. Later in life, he got an incredible gift from the country music legend.

“Willie Nelson… gave me my first guitar. You know the Trigger guitar he has? The historic one? I guess Martin only made 100 of those,” Johnson said. “As a birthday gift, ’cause I was such a huge fan, he gave me one of those. I mean, I play like dog s**t compared to him, but it’s still a cool gift.”

With that guitar in hand, Johnson said he’s now “exploring” what a music career could look like.

“Music has always been such an anchor for me, and very specifically in genres that I love, like country music, traditional country music,” Johnson said, before sharing that he’s interested in putting out “something in just the old-school soul genre, with some country flavor… My thought is, ‘Oh, man, I wanna go and write and sing and explore the things that I love.”

“I have such reverence and respect for all music, but especially in Nashville,” he added. “Because of how I came up there, and you see all these artists coming up. So I wanna approach this project, whatever it’s gonna be, with that level of respect.”

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