Dwayne Johnson is “exploring” the idea of a music career.
The WWE legend turned Hollywood megastar has revealed the single Your Dad, which he co-wrote with former American Idol winner Iam Tongi, as part of the tie-in album Moana: Voices Across The Ocean, and he’s keen to see where it goes.
Asked about the chances of digging deeper into music, he told Rolling Stone magazine: “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.”
The Rock, 54, insisted he’s at a stage in his life and career where he wants to fully embrace whatever project he’s working on.
He added: “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.”
Dwayne noted that that so many of those projects are “connected to some sort of commerce”, with a pressure on them to “do well”.
However, he said: “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.”
Dwayne had dreams of being a country singer as a teen, while his first foray into music came as part of a 2000 collaboration with Wyclef Jean on It Doesn’t Matter, before really showing his talents on Your Welcome from 2016’s Moana.
When it comes to a possible career change, he pondered the idea of embracing “the old-school soul genre” akin to Sam Cooke and Merle Haggard with “some country flavour”.
He recalled: “That’s how I grew up. And those were my strong influences from my dad. My dad was a pro wrestler, and we lived on the road, and I lived in the backseat of the car, ’cause we just drove.
“And every night a different city. And so that’s all he would listen to. So my thought is, ‘Oh, man, I wanna go and write and sing and explore the things that I love.’ “