Stealing from tourists? ’Roid Rumors?
Furious with his Fast Family? A big rock can hide some dirty secrets.
For the most part, Dwayne Johnson doesn't tap into anything too controversial, but when it comes to
Joe Rogan, apparently, he can't help himself. Per the New York Times, back in 2020, Spotify
signed an exclusivity deal with Rogan for around $200 million. By the time 2022 rolled around,
artists like Neil Young protested by pulling their catalogs from the platform over what they believed
to be Spotify's support of misinformation on Rogan's show regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.
Initially, when Rogan posted a video to Instagram addressing the controversy,
Johnson appeared to support him. He reportedly commented,
"Great stuff here brother. Perfectly articulated.
Look forward to coming on [the show] one day and breaking out the tequila with you."
Johnson's comment appears to have since been deleted.
Despite the video, the controversy was far from over. People began digging into Rogan's past and
unearthed some less than savory stuff, including his allegedly flippant use of racial slurs.
Rogan later issued a public apology for his past behavior.
When Johnson was confronted by his fans about the controversy,
he publicly distanced himself from Rogan and his previous comments. In response to
crime writer Don Winslow, who criticized his support of the podcast host, Johnson tweeted,
"I hear you as well as everyone here 100%. I was not aware of his N-word use prior to my comments,
but now I've become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me."
"Talking to two rejects from 'Harry Potter'.
So, that's how you win over the crowd."
There's no shortage of feuds when it comes to Dwayne Johnson and his long career. From WWE
wrestler to A-List actor, he has had his share of issues with other professionals.
In his wrestling days it was revealed that The Rock and John Cena had been having
issues with one another. Back in 2016, Cena told fans at Salt Lake Comic Con,
"For two years, The Rock and I kind of made fun of each other a lot.
It got pretty heated and it got pretty personal. I said some things that were less than nice.
He said some things that were less than nice."
Thankfully, though, that's all firmly in the past. However,
his acting feuds with his "Fast and Furious" co-stars have taken center stage.
In a 2021 Men's Health interview, Vin Diesel implied that Johnson needed
a lot of coaching to get his acting up to par. When speaking to Rolling Stone,
Johnson claimed he and Diesel had completely different approaches to on-set professionalism.
Though the "Jungle Cruise" star hasn't been a direct part of the "Fast and Furious" franchise
in years, the feud is far from over. In November 2021, Diesel posted a long plea
on Instagram asking him to rejoin the series for the final film. Johnson told CNN later that month,
"Vin's recent public post was an example of his manipulation. [...] My goal all along was to end
my amazing journey with this incredible 'Fast & Furious' franchise with gratitude and grace.
It's unfortunate that this public dialogue has muddied the waters."
"I'll see you soon. No you won't."
Back in 2017, Tyrese Gibson lashed out at Johnson
for accepting the spinoff film "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,"
which subsequently involved delaying production on "F9." A few days later Gibson told TMZ,
"He's the reason we're pushing the release date back now.
I just got a problem with Dwayne, it appears that he's being selfish."
That bad blood seems to be in the past though, since Gibson claimed that after a long-overdue
phone call, they've been making up for lost time.
"I think we're both better men on the other side of all that stuff that went down."
After making the jump from WWE star to movie star, Johnson made yet another jump to executive
producer with the release of his show "Ballers" in 2015. The hit HBO series about the cutthroat
world of professional football saw Johnson working alongside fellow executive producer Mark Wahlberg
as part of a larger creative team. However, it wasn't long before the series landed in hot water.
Upon the release of the first season of "Ballers," Johnson, Wahlberg, and several others were slapped
with a lawsuit by Everette Silas and Sherri Littleton, who claimed that the HBO project
directly pulled from their unproduced script, "Off Season." As compensation, the writers demanded
$200 million for copyright infringement. Silas and Littleton claimed that HBO executives were
given their script in 2007 and thus had access to its contents long before "Ballers" aired.
Luckily for the team, less than a year later
a California judge ruled in HBO's favor and dismissed the lawsuit as meritless.
Long before Dwayne Johnson was a WWE star, he was a star football player at the University of Miami.
Like so many other athletes playing at a certain level, Johnson felt the pressure to be bigger,
better, faster, and stronger than his competitors. Shortly after he got serious about his dream to
play in the NFL, he began experimenting with steroids. In a 2009 MTV interview, Johnson said,
"Me and my buddies tried it back in the day when I was 18 or 19.
[We] didn't know what we were doing."
Though he's moved on to the world of film, he's never been fully able to shake the rumors that
he's relied a little more heavily on steroids than he'd like to admit. Despite the naysayers,
Johnson is adamant that his rock-hard body comes from hard work and nothing else.
In a 2014 interview with Fortune, he said,
"Training is my anchor. Being on a regimented schedule, setting a goal,
failing at a goal. It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today."
You may not have guessed that Dwayne Johnson would turn out to be the success he is today
if you'd known him in his younger years. His father, Wayde Douglas Bowles,
also known as Rocky, was a professional wrestler as well, and his career demanded that the family
move frequently. That lack of stability took its toll on young Johnson, and by the time he was 13,
he was acting out. He told The Sun in 2021,
"I started getting arrested for fighting,
theft, all kinds of stupid [stuff] that I shouldn't have been doing."
The star was living in Hawaii at the time and would pickpocket tourists,
then pawn the goods. His bad behavior eventually caught up with him,
and by the time he was 17, he'd been arrested more than a few times.
Years later, Johnson channeled those memories into the sitcom "Young Rock,"
and he is grateful for both the good and the bad in his past that helped him create
the show — a process that he found deeply rewarding. He told Entertainment Tonight,
"I get shook. I get teary-eyed as I'm watching these experiences that I have lived.
Now I get a chance to share them with the world."