The Rock's walking tall now, reflects on life in Nashville
By BRAD SCHMITT
March 16, 2004


Years before the limos, the multimillion-dollar movie deals, the raised eyebrow, years before anyone smelled what he was cookin,' The Rock spent about 12 months living in seedy Murfreesboro Road motels with his parents.

Last night, The Rock had a triumphant return to Nashville for the premiere of his latest movie, Walking Tall, a story that also has Middle Tennessee ties.

Nearly 1,000 shrieking fans crowded around a red carpet at Regal Opry Mills 20 to greet The Rock, who 17 years earlier was known as Dwayne Johnson, a sophomore at McGavock and Glencliff high schools.

In an interview with The Tennessean before the premiere, Johnson said his father's professional wrestling career brought the family to a bunch of Southern cities, including Nashville in 1987.

While declaring his love for Nashville, The Rock recalled his family's struggles during its brief stay in Nashville.

''We stayed in some bad places on Murfreesboro Road,'' he said.

His father, Rocky Johnson, the original of the moniker The Rock, wrestled locally for a program run by Jerry Jarrett, father to Jeff Jarrett, who now runs the Total Nonstop Action league Wednesday nights at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. Dwayne Johnson first attended McGavock High School because of its respected football program, but Metro school officials eventually discovered he was zoned to attend Glencliff, and the transfer was made.

The Rock said he had few friends in those high schools.

''I was 6-4, 220 pounds, and just transferred in. Everybody thought I was a cop, so nobody talked to me. I would end up making a couple of friends, but forget it with the ladies,'' he said with a smile.

Dwayne Johnson was only 14 and 15 in Nashville, but state laws allowed him to drive legally in his native Hawaii, so he kept on driving here.

The Rock remembers getting his first car ever from someone he called ''a crackhead on Lower Broadway.''

He scored a run-down 1979 blue Thunderbird for $40, but the car came with a surprise.

''We were driving around for a while and there was a rustling in the back. There was another crackhead on the back floorboard.''

Johnson said he quickly tossed him out of the car.

''But they got the last laugh. They had the gas key. I think I left the car in a Burger King parking lot.''

That parking lot was probably less than 10 miles from where Opry Mills is today, but The Rock is millions of miles from the teenage Dwayne Johnson, who finished his high school education in Bethlehem, Pa., before going on to play for a national championship college team in Florida.

Fans screamed and screamed last night as The Rock moved down the carpet, signing autographs on posters, action figures and clothes.

Among those in attendance were hundreds of residents of McNairy County.

That's where a tough sheriff named Buford Pusser cleaned up a corrupt town in the 1960s, and that's the motivation for the Walking Tall book and movies.

Pusser's daughter, Dwana Pusser, conceded that The Rock's movie version of her father's story varied greatly from what happened 40 years ago. But she said the movie captured well the spirit of her father's efforts to clean up corruption.

When introducing The Rock to the audience last night, Dwana Pusser choked up: ''My heart just overflows with joy to know how happy my daddy would be.''