The Rock has opened up about the passing of his father.
The Great One has always been honest about the difficult relationship he had with his dad. The late great Rocky Johnson had to go through many hardships in his life from a very young age. It was reflected in the life of The Great One in the form of tough love from his father.
The Hollywood star recently had an interview with Patrick Bet-David of Valuetainment. He talked about things such as his relationship with Vince McMahon, making business deals and more.
When asked about his father’s passing in 2020 and if he was prepared for it, The Rock explained that he wasn’t. He opened up about how they had an argument only weeks before, and the former WWE Champion got emotional discussing how he never even got the chance to say goodbye to his dad:
“No, I wasn’t prepared for it because my dad died suddenly—just like that. An embolism travelled up and ended his life. It happened suddenly; I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. And here’s the thing, and brother this is just…it’s life.
A month before he died, we got into the biggest fight we have ever gotten into. We never had a chance to reconcile that. It was brutal, it was during Christmas time as well. So Christmas was just tainted. I felt like shit, he felt like shit, my mom was involved and admittedly I was angry. Three weeks went by, we didn’t reconcile. He died, and that was it.
You asked me if I was prepared. No one’s ever prepared for that—even if, God forbid, you have a loved one who is transitioning out. You can prepare as best you can for their transition, or in my case, they say goodbye just like that, without saying goodbye. So, I never had a chance to say goodbye and never had the chance to right that thing that I wish I did. So that was tough one.”
I Never Had A Chance: The Rock
The Rock also discussed what the untimely passing of his father taught him. He mentioned how we are always told that anything can happen anytime but you don’t realize the true meaning of it until you experience it firsthand:
“The lesson, though I realized is – we hear this all the time: You never know what’s around the corner. Hug your loved ones, hug your little ones. I do a lot of work with Make-A-Wish, and every time I do, it’s so important. When you leave those meetings with Make-A-Wish, you see these kids who are so strong, you see the parents who are being so strong too. You go home and hug your kids tighter—that’s just what you do.
We hear it all the time: Hug your kids, take care of [and] hug your loved ones. You never know what’s around the corner. But until you go through something like that, that’s when those words really hit home. And I realized that man, I wish I had a shot just to hug my dad one more time or say, maybe he’s listening now, hug and say ‘It’s all right; we’re good.’ I never had a chance to do that.”
Rocky Johnson had a lengthy wrestling career spanning almost three decades. He started wrestling in 1964 and won championships in many NWA territories as well as in WWF. He passed away on January 15, 2020, at the age of 75.
