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Willie Nelson Gave The Rock His First Guitar—and Now He’s Thinking About a Country Album

Willie Nelson Gave The Rock His First Guitar—and Now He’s Thinking About a Country Album

Photo: Associated Press


Apparently Dwayne Johnson has some pretty serious country credentials hiding underneath all those muscles.

The actor better known as “The Rock” revealed in a new interview that his very first guitar was a birthday gift from Willie Nelson.

And this wasn’t something Willie grabbed at the local music store on his way to the party.

Johnson says Willie Nelson gave him one of only 100 Martin guitars made to resemble Trigger, Nelson’s legendary guitar.

That’s quite a first guitar.

Johnson told Rolling Stone that country music was a major influence on him growing up, naming George Jones, Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck and Willie among the artists he listened to.

He also grew up in a Polynesian household where singing and music were simply part of everyday life. Johnson’s wife, Lauren Hashian, says that when the two first started dating, their evenings sometimes included staying home and singing karaoke together.

Now Johnson may be thinking about taking that interest in music a little further.

After recently recording “Your Dad” for a Moana project, he said he’s interested in exploring an old-school soul sound with some country mixed in. When the idea of making an album of duets was suggested, Johnson sounded intrigued—and specifically talked about his respect for Nashville and its artists.

Could The Rock actually make a country record?

Stranger things have happened.

And if he needs somebody to play guitar on it, he apparently already knows a pretty good guy.

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