--- title: The Rock Celebrates His Dad's Birthday With Some Tough Love description: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson shared a video message for his father, also a famous wrestler, and recalled his tough-love childhood on the mats. canonical: https://time.com/4464841/the-rock-celebrates-his-dads-birthday-by-sharing-some-of-his-tough-love-advice/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-24T19:06:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:49.341Z og:title: The Rock Celebrates His Dad's Birthday With Some Tough Love og:description: In a video message to his dad, The Rock shares the tough love he grew up with. og:url: https://time.com/4464841/the-rock-celebrates-his-dads-birthday-by-sharing-some-of-his-tough-love-advice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Rock Celebrates His Dad's Birthday With Some Tough Love twitter:description: In a video message to his dad, The Rock shares the tough love he grew up with. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Rock Celebrates His Dad's Birthday By Sharing Some of His Tough-Love Advice  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 24, 2016 7:06 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 24, 2016 7:06 PM UTC Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is one of [Hollywood’s busiest leading men](http://time.com/4355140/dwayne-johnson-the-rock-president/?iid=sr-link3). But he took time out of his gym session on Wednesday to record a special video message for his father, Rocky ‘Soulman’ Johnson, on the occasion of his seventy-second birthday. As the song “Soulman” by the Blues Brothers plays in the background, a sweaty, smiling Rock sent out words of love to the elder Johnson, noting some of his accomplishments along the way — including the fact that he was a WWE Hall of Famer. We also learn that [The Rock’s notorious work ethic](http://time.com/4314635/dwayne-johnson-the-rock-alarm-clock-app/?iid=sr-link3) and [low tolerance of complaining](http://time.com/4444921/the-rock-furious-8-male-costars/?iid=sr-link1) is probably a result of his dad’s tough love, and that he started his son out on the wrestling mats at the tender age of six. “He used to tell me, ‘Hey—if you’re gonna cry or you’re gonna throw up, go outside. And then when you’re done throwing up, go home to your mom for sympathy,'” The Rock recalls. “Wow, what an incredible life you’ve had, and you’ve lived… I’m going back to get after it. I’m not crying this time.” The Rock Celebrates His Dad's Birthday With Some Tough Love ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4464841/the-rock-celebrates-his-dads-birthday-by-sharing-some-of-his-tough-love-advice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4464841/the-rock-celebrates-his-dads-birthday-by-sharing-some-of-his-tough-love-advice/"},"headline":"The Rock Celebrates His Dad's Birthday By Sharing Some of His Tough-Love Advice","datePublished":"2016-08-24T19:06:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:49.341Z","description":"Like father, like son","url":"https://time.com/4464841/the-rock-celebrates-his-dads-birthday-by-sharing-some-of-his-tough-love-advice/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4464841/the-rock-celebrates-his-dads-birthday-by-sharing-some-of-his-tough-love-advice/","name":"The Rock Celebrates His Dad's Birthday By Sharing Some of His Tough-Love Advice"}}]}] ```