Dwayne Johnson Drops 'Your Dad,' Explores Music Career
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- Dwayne Johnson co-wrote 'Your Dad' with Iam Tongi, the Hawaiian singer who won American Idol in 2023, after Tongi sent him a song called 'My Dad' that moved Johnson to tears but struck too close to home
- Johnson rewrote Tongi's original so he could sing it to his daughters rather than to his late father, with whom he says he had a 'complicated' relationship; the song is featured on Moana: Voices Across the Ocean, a companion album to the live-action Moana
- Johnson executive-produced the album with his wife Lauren Hashian — daughter of Sib Hashian, the drummer for the rock band Boston — alongside producers Tiana Nonosina Liufau and Kayla Fa'amaligi
- Johnson's musical resume includes the 2000 Wyclef Jean track 'It Doesn't Matter,' the 2016 Moana hit 'You're Welcome' (1.8 billion YouTube streams on YouTube), and a 2020 collaboration with Tech N9ne on 'Face Off'
- Johnson cites Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck, and Willie Nelson as formative influences — Nelson once gifted him one of only 100 Martin 'Trigger' guitars made
- Johnson said he wants to explore 'old-school soul genre, with some country flavor,' and recorded 'Your Dad' stripped down with just his guitar in the studio while looking at photos of his daughters
- The album project was Lauren Hashian's idea, inspired by prior Disney soundtracks like Beyoncé's Lion King and Kendrick Lamar's Black Panther; Johnson noted it gives Polynesian artists a global platform
Why it matters: Johnson recorded the song in a stripped-down studio setting specifically to escape the commercial pressures of his film career — a rare public admission from one of Hollywood's top earners that creative fulfillment now outweighs box-office expectations. His choice to elevate Polynesian artists through the album, rather than center himself, reframes this as a cultural project as much as a personal one.
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