Everyone already knows Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson can carry a tune. “You’re Welcome” from the original animated Moana made sure of that. What’s new is that he’s telling Rolling Stone he’s actually considering doing something with it.
The Song That Started the Conversation
Johnson and his wife, Lauren Hashian, are executive producers on Moana: Voices Across the Ocean, Disney’s new companion album to the live-action Moana remake, built around 25 Pacific artists. Johnson himself co-wrote and performs a track on it called “Your Dad,” alongside 2023 American Idol winner Iam Tongi, dedicated to his three daughters, Simone, Jasmine, and Tiana.
In a separate interview with PEOPLE, Johnson explained the line that means the most to him: “A deeper love that I never knew. You took my heart, and you pulled it through.” His 10-year-old daughter Jasmine asked him what it meant while he was putting her to bed. He told her that without realizing it, she’d pulled him through the harder parts of life just by being who she is. Her reaction, per Johnson: “She was like, ‘Wow.'”
What He Told Rolling Stone
That song is apparently what pushed Johnson to think bigger. Asked directly about a future in music, he didn’t downplay it:
“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.”
“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. And the most gratifying things we do are when it’s for us, because we have enough pressure to deliver for so many other entities.”
“The things we do, we must do them for ourselves, and then we must feel it in here, behind our ribcage. But they’re also always connected to some sort of commerce. You make films, especially the big four-quadrant movies, you want them to do well. 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 Country Star He Almost Was
This isn’t a midlife pivot out of nowhere. Johnson told Rolling Stone he dreamed of being a country star as a teenager, raised on the artists his wrestler father played nonstop on the road: Sam Cooke, Elvis, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Paycheck. By 15, after his family got evicted and relocated to Nashville, he was hanging around Broadway trying to land a gig at the honky-tonks, chasing what he’s since called “this dream in my head, or a delusion, that I was going to be a country music star.”
Willie Nelson’s Gift
The clearest sign that dream never fully died: Johnson’s first guitar was a birthday gift from Willie Nelson himself, one of only 100 Martin guitars built with Nelson’s signature “Trigger” design. Johnson has been characteristically self-deprecating about his skills with it, joking that he plays “like dog s**t compared to him.” He’s already dipped a toe in on camera, too, appearing in country singer Chris Janson‘s 2024 video for “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get” after the two bonded over a shared love of the Grand Ole Opry and Hank Jr.
Where This Leaves Him
The timing is notable. Johnson’s live-action Moana underperformed at the box office this summer, and he’s already been leaning into more personal, lower-pressure work after the acclaim he got for The Smashing Machine last year. A song written for his kids, with no box office or streaming numbers attached, fits that same pattern. Whether “exploring” turns into an actual album remains to be seen, but between the Willie Nelson guitar, the Nashville teenage years, and a song his own daughter had to ask him to explain, Johnson’s music career would have more of a backstory than most.
