Celebrities

6 things we learned from The Rock's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast

6 things we learned from The Rock's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast
Joe Rogan 'perplexed' at men's 'appalling' backlash to Barbie movie
The Joe Rogan Experience podcast

Can you tell what The Rock is cooking? Well, listeners to the latest Joe Rogan Experience episode certainly could, as one of the most famous movie stars in the world met with the podcast host.

The actor, real name Dwayne Johnson, spoke with Rogan for three hours over the course of the interview in another lengthy instalment of the podcast.

The pair talked about everything from the wrestler-turned-actor’s early ambitions in life to his thoughts on politics and much more in between.

Here are six things we learned from the episode.

He had dreams of being a country music singer

He looks like he was born to be a wrestler, and with a personality to match his frame it’s no surprise he became a huge movie star too – but it turns out Johnson had dreams of becoming a country music star before his career took off.

Johnson spoke about his early life, revealing that he was hanging out in Nashville at the age of 15 in pursuit of his dream.

“It was downtown Nashville… I had no business being in a bar on Lower Broadway, because I had this fantasy in my head that I was gonna be a country music singer,” he said.

That didn’t quite work out – and he’s probably quite glad things transpired for him the way they did.

This crazy story about his first car

Joe & The Rock: "What Was Your First Car?"www.youtube.com

Johnson shared a tale about his first car, which he had for a matter of hours.

“I would go down to these honky tonks, so I was down there with a buddy of mine named Downtown Bruno, who’s still one of my best friends today, and a drunk walks in and says “Hey, who wants to buy a car?” he said.

“I had no car at that time, no money, we had just got evicted out of Hawaii and I said “I’ll buy it”, and I had no money. I said ‘How much?’ He said ‘$75, 80 bucks’ and I said ‘Cool’.”

“I tell Bruno ‘How much money you got?’ He said ‘I only got $40’ I said ‘Give me $40’.

The actor went on to say: “So I give it to the drunk, who’s probably high too as well, and I said’“Here, I’ll come back and give you the other $40.’ Speaking of cool cars, it was a ’77 Thunderbird. Blue… It was a hunk of sh**.

“Give the drunk $40 bucks, I said ‘Hey, I’ll come back and give you the rest tonight.’ I get in the vehicle, I start driving down the road, Downtown Bruno is following me in his car, I’m like ‘F*** I got my first car.’ You know how it is when you’re a kid, right, you’re like this is it brother. This is it.”

“I’m driving down the road, on I-65 down in Nashville, and I hear a lot of noise, some rustling. You know on those big bodies they have the backseat and the floor is really wide? There was another f***ing drunk on the floor… I was like ‘What the f***?’ He’s in the car.

The story went on: “So I pull over and he’s just high as f***, probably a crackhead, and I said ‘Dude, I bought the car, you’ve gotta get out.’ He gets out.

“Then the next day I go to put gas in the car, by the way, I’m 15, I have no f***ing papers, the car is probably stolen. I try to put gas in it and the guy, the drunk, the crackhead, didn’t give me the gas key. Remember those old school that had the gas key?

“So I ditched it at a f***ing Burger King. That was my first car.”

The Rock has never heard of the Cybertruck

Sorry Elon Musk bros – The Rock has never heard of the Cybertruck, despite Rogan waxing lyrical about it, and he doesn’t own a Tesla either, because he only drives pick-up trucks.

Dismisses a run for President

The Rock Running as President? Approached by a Political Party | Joe Rogan Experiencewww.youtube.com

Not long ago, when Trump was in power and the likes of Oprah Winfrey and other celebs were being touted for president, there were plenty of people clamouring for Johnson to get into politics.

However, the actor has revealed that it will never happen – despite the fact one of the two main parties in the US previously approached him.

He said that he wouldn’t run because “things are so f***ed up”, before detailing his meeting with the unnamed party.

“So one of the parties came to visit me at the end of last year asking for me to run for President,” he said. “First of all, incredibly f***ing surreal cause I was the guy wrestling in flea markets years ago looking for free corn dogs and hot dogs and s***. Selling my headshots for five bucks trying to make money and all of a sudden I’m having that conversation.”

He added: “It was so incredibly surreal but also so incredible that they had all this data that they had said if this happens here’s the result. It was really f***ing deep. And then I started to think, again surreal because that’s never been my goal, right?

“I appreciate it and I’m f***ing honored but it made me think, this is either an incredible thing and I’ve got some pretty decent leadership skills, or things are so f***ed up.”

He also said he has “never been in to politics. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot about politics that I hate”.

Claims he nearly turned to MMA in the 90s

He’s one of the wrestling greats, but Johnson claims he had ambitions to switch to MMA in the 90s.

Claiming he came close to signing with Japanese MMA promotion company PRIDE.

He also said at one point he didn't think he'd make it in the WWE because people were "booing" him during matches, and he also wasn't happy with the money he was earning.

"I had this idea in my head - maybe I should train [for] MMA and go to PRIDE."

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