The Rock reveals final conversation with Rocky Johnson was marred by memoir dispute

Dwayne Johnson, known to millions as The Rock, says his last conversation with his late father, Rocky Johnson, was defined by a dispute over a memoir that appeared to credit him for Johnson’s success with quotes attributed to him that he did not write. In an in‑depth interview with The New York Times Magazine published Sunday, Johnson described the moment as the culmination of a long, complicated bond with a man who was both mentor and presence on the road as a professional wrestler. “It hurts,” he said of the confrontation, and he recalled that Rocky’s behavior during the dispute crossed a line that left a lasting ache.

Rocky Johnson’s career as a wrestler shaped a childhood marked by constant moves and a father who was frequently away. Johnson said the friction between his parents was ongoing, and the turbulence carried into his own early decisions to pursue pro wrestling. The elder Johnson’s willingness to step away from home during tours left a child who sometimes felt lonely and adrift. “What do you think you possibly have to offer?” Rocky reportedly told his son at one low moment, a line that has haunted Johnson as he reflected on the family’s dynamic. The backstory of a young Dwayne Johnson—growing up in motion, with a father who prioritized the road over stability—offers a window into the pressures that shaped his drive and his guarded posture toward his father’s legacy.

The memoir episode remains a focal point of Johnson’s account. He said his father’s 2019 memoir, Soulman: The Rocky Johnson Story, included quotes that appeared to be written as if Rocky had authored the foreword and given him credit for Johnson’s own success. Johnson told the Times Magazine that the book’s claims were not truthful, noting that the “truth” of his experiences did not align with the stories in the book. “Growing up with my dad, I know the truth to all these stories, and they’re not in this book. If the truth is blue, the story is red,” he explained. The tension over the book helped precipitate a bitter, high‑profile dispute that Johnson said culminated in a moment that still wounds him today.

Johnson said the disagreement over the memoir and the idea of being written into someone else’s narrative preceded the 2019 blowup, which he described as the largest fight he’d had with his father since he first decided to follow in his dad’s wrestling footsteps decades earlier. His account includes the personal cost of the conflict, including a family crisis that unfolded years before the public dispute: when he was 15, he and his mother were evicted from their Hawaii apartment, an event that left a mark on him and on how he viewed his father’s role in their lives. He said his mother asked Rocky to let him live with him in Tennessee so she could handle affairs in Hawaii, only to be met with his father’s absence when he arrived. He described the moment he realized his father was living with another woman and the heartbreak he witnessed on his mother’s face as she confronted the upheaval of their family. In Johnson’s telling, the scene of his mother’s eviction and her fear of losing the life she’d built is among the most painful memories he carries.

The personal fallout from the memoir dispute extended into Johnson’s professional life. He said he learned that the book’s content did not reflect the truth he knew about his own history with his father, and he and his family moved to remove the book from bookstore shelves. The episode coincided with a separate, poignant moment: Rocky Johnson died in 2020 while Johnson was driving to the set of Red Notice on the first day of filming. Johnson described it as a moment when the decision to keep working—guided by the maxim that “the show must go on”—pushed him forward, even as he wrestled with the sense of loss and the complexity of their relationship.

At Rocky Johnson’s funeral, Johnson said he came to a different understanding of his father’s legacy. He recalled that his father had been a good friend to many in the wrestling world, including Hulk Hogan and Triple H, even if their own relationship remained difficult. “Wildly enough, my old man was just this amazing friend,” he said. “Complicated husband. Complicated dad. But an awesome friend to everyone else.” Yet when pressed about whether he felt he was more his father’s friend than his son, Johnson offered a nuanced answer: “He wasn’t my friend either. I wish. I think that my mom was my friend.”

The revelations in the Times Magazine interview emphasize how Johnson has learned to carry both sides of his father’s legacy—his influence, his flaws, and the moments that forged a path for the career he built in film and wrestling. He is now a father to three children—Simone, 24; Jasmine, 9; and Tiana, 7—and has spoken about seeking a more honest, human portrait of his father than the one that emerged from the controversial memoir. In reflecting on his family’s past, Johnson remains focused on balancing gratitude for the opportunities his father provided with the responsibility of telling the truth about their shared history.

The interview adds texture to a public persona that has long emphasized resilience and perseverance. Johnson’s account of his father’s cross‑generational influence—how Rocky’s life intersected with his own rise in entertainment—offers fans a more complex view of the man behind the blockbuster films and public persona. It also underscores the enduring impact of family history on Johnson’s approach to work, memory, and the delicate balance between truth and storytelling in the world of celebrity narratives.

As Johnson continues to wrestle with the weight of his father’s legacy, he has not distanced himself from the lessons Rocky Johnson taught him, even as he rejects parts of the past that do not align with his own truth. The experience, he suggested, has reinforced the idea that honesty—about both triumphs and failures—is essential for anyone who aims to tell their own story without glamorizing what came before. And in that insistence on truth, Johnson’s reflections on his father’s life—both the admiration and the wounds—form a narrative as compelling as any blockbuster the actor has delivered on screen.