Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and Post Malone have all gone country. Will the next star to join them be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?
Johnson, 51, hinted that he might be the next A-lister to don cowboy boots and a 10-gallon hat. When he spoke with Billboard about appearing in the music video for Chris Janson‘s “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get,” the former WWE champion seemed game to jump into the recording booth and put out a country album.
“We have to work on it,” Johnson told the publication. “Maybe this year, we’ll see.”
Johnson has showcased his singing skills throughout his career. When he first hosted Saturday Night Live in 2000, he sang a version of Elvis Presley‘s “Are You Lonesome Tonight” (a song he sang again in 2007’s The Game Plan). As The Rock, Johnson sang on several occasions within the WWE ring. He also showed off his chops with “You’re Welcome,” an earworm from the Moana soundtrack.
It wouldn’t be that far-fetched for Johnson to release a country album. He told Billboard that he grew up listening to country music. “We were evicted out of Hawaii, couldn’t pay the rent, sent to Nashville,” he recalled. “I moved in with a buddy of mine, a family friend in a motel. That’s when we started going down, hanging out on [Broadway].”
“A couple of days later, I was in Piggly Wiggly, singing a Hank [Williams] song,” he continued. One of Johnson’s fellow shoppers came up to him and asked if he sang professionally. “I’m 15 and I went, ‘No, I just love to sing. I love country,’” he remembered. “She goes, ‘You should go down to [Broadway]. That’s where all the singers are.’”
Johnson continued to hang out on Broadway in Nashville, “trying to get a gig at these honky-tonks,” as he said. He later said via Instagram that he “had this dream (delusion) I was gonna become a country music star and I was hanging out on Lower Broad [Street] trying to get into Tootsies so they’d let me sing.”
So far, the closest that Johnson has gotten to country stardom is appearing in Janson’s “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get” music video. In the vid, Janson, 38, and Johnson go off-roading in a Ford before hanging out in the flatbed with a guitar and a beer.
Johnson has recently returned to the WWE, reprising his role as The Rock in a heelish manner. He has a handful of projects on the way, including a role in the live-action adaptation of Moana and in Red One, a Christmas-themed adventure movie starring Chris Evans, Lucy Liu and J.K. Simmons.