Dwayne Johnson releases a country song called Your Dad

Dwayne Johnson has released "Your Dad," an acoustic country song he co-wrote with 2023 American Idol winner Iam Tongi, Taste of Country reported on August 12. The track appears on Moana: Voices Across the Ocean, a companion album to Disney's live-action Moana, which Johnson executive produced alongside his wife, Lauren Hashian, and producers Tiana Nonosina Liufau and Kayla Fa'amaligi.

Johnson told Rolling Stone en Espanol that he asked Tongi, a fellow Polynesian artist, for a song idea he could make his own. Tongi sent back a song called "My Dad," written about the children he does not yet have and the father he lost; Johnson said he was moved to tears but did not feel ready to sing it about his own complicated relationship with his late father. The two reworked it so Johnson could sing it to his daughters instead, changing the title to "Your Dad."

Johnson, known to wrestling and film fans as the Rock, said his earliest influences were Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Paycheck, along with Willie Nelson, who gave him his first guitar. He also described a teenage stint in Nashville: at 15, after his family lost their apartment in Hawaii, he was sent to live with his father, ended up staying with a family friend known as Downtown Bruno in a motel, and spent his days on Lower Broadway near Tootsie's, the Ryman Auditorium and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, once trying to talk his way into bar gigs by singing Hank Williams Jr.'s "Old Habits" and Merle Haggard's "Misery and Gin."

Johnson sings the song mostly over a bare acoustic guitar arrangement, with his own children appearing throughout the accompanying music video. Taste of Country's Billy Dukes wrote that the 54-year-old actor has previously spoken about his childhood in Nashville and his appreciation for country music. The lyrics are framed as a father's promise to a child: "I'll pray while you're sleepin', watching you while you're dreaming, I hope you understand, just how proud I am, to be your dad."

Johnson's musical output stretches back further than this single. He first appeared on record in 2000, contributing a few shouted lines to Wyclef Jean's "It Doesn't Matter," and voiced the demigod Maui in 2016's animated Moana, singing Lin-Manuel Miranda's "You're Welcome," which has drawn more than 1.8 billion YouTube views on its own. The new companion album also features "Family Tree" by Stan Walker, the Australian Idol winner whose vocal Johnson said set the tone for the whole project.

Dukes suggested a short EP from Johnson could work as a next step, though he called a full album from the actor a stretch. Johnson told Rolling Stone en Espanol that he is now seriously exploring music alongside acting, with an eye toward old-school soul blended with country. Your Dad joins the release calendar among this year's country crossover surprises.