After almost a decade of friendship constructed on the facility of music, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jelly Roll lastly obtained to satisfy in particular person.
In a candy video posted by the 2 stars late Monday (June 30) on Instagram, the film star wraps the musician in an enormous hug backstage on the set of American Idol, on which Jelly served because the present’s first-ever artist in residence within the lately wrapped season 23. “I’ve been ready a decade for this hug, child!” the singer says, rising from his trailer.
The 2 males then dive into an emotional dialog, with Johnson explaining how he struggled whereas residing as a youngster in Nashville after his household was evicted from their residence in Hawaii. Years later, the actor went by one other troublesome time in 2017, however was in a position to energy by after discovering Jelly’s music.
“I used to be struggling,” Johnson wrote in his caption. “My psychological wellness changed into my psychological hellness … Then a track got here on by my headphones one morning on a random shuffle playlist. ‘Solely’ from Jelly Roll. The lyrics rocked me. Laborious core.”
Johnson then reached out to Jelly, spawning a yearslong friendship primarily based on messaging forwards and backwards. Because the musician says within the clip, the previous professional wrestler beat Jelly’s personal mother to congratulating him after he gained his first award.
Lastly getting to satisfy in particular person, Johnson gifted Jelly with a particular current: a postcard exhibiting the place the actor used to dwell in Nashville. If anybody understands what it’s prefer to wrestle whereas arising in Music Metropolis, it’s Jelly; the Tennessee-born artist has been open about spending time out and in of jail earlier than beginning his music profession.
“That is loopy … that is actual old-school Nashville historical past,” a shocked Jelly says on the finish of the video, holding up the postcard to point out what Johnson wrote: “Hold doin’ it brother. Happy with you!”
Johnson has previously shared how Jelly’s music helped him by a darkish interval. On The Kelly Clarkson Present final November, the celebrity stated, “That was certainly one of my bouts with melancholy … I used to be attempting to steadiness loads, we had been pregnant with our second child … my older daughter, she was lengthy distance, I used to be attempting to movie a film. There was loads happening.”
“We obtained involved with one another and I instructed him what it meant to me,” Johnson continued on the time. “We didn’t know one another, however turned actually good associates. That’s my boy, and I like that man.”
The video comes as Jelly is at present on tour, balancing solo dates with joint stadium exhibits with Publish Malone. Jelly’s bitcoin album, Superbly Damaged, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
And along with their shared Nashville historical past, Jelly and Johnson have one thing else in widespread. Each are Billboard chart-reaching artists, with The Rock touchdown on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2016 with Moana‘s “You’re Welcome.”
Watch The Rock and Jelly Roll lastly meet head to head under.