On the October 17 episode of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” Kelly Clarkson and Dwayne Johnson paid a honky-tonk tribute to the late country music superstar Loretta Lynn. They sang her 1967 hit “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” The song was played in a honky-tonk style at the show.
The two singers were surprisingly good, and we didn’t even know The Rock could sing. They took turns singing the song’s clever verses, which tell the story of a woman who has to turn down a lover who comes home drunk and looking for love. The song tells the story of a woman who has to turn down a lover who comes home after drinking too much and wants to be with her.
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The actor best known for his role in the “Jumanji” movie series held his own next to Clarkson, whose smooth vocals had a hint of Loretta Lynn’s signature country quiver. During the song’s upbeat choruses, they all sang in harmony with each other.
“No, don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind / Just stay out there on the town and see what you can find / ‘Cause if you want that kind of love, well, you don’t need none of mine / So don’t come home a drinkin’ with lovin’ on your mind,” they sang.
While Clarkson clapped her hands and Johnson patted his hip, her studio band Y’all let loose with some twangy pedal steel guitar and bouncy piano. Johnson joined the fun, too.
The pair sang a duet that was completely unplanned. This probably made Lynn, who died on October 4 at the age of 90, very happy. And as for the people who watched the show, they loved it.
“What a world we live in. Never in a million years would I think I’d ever see THE ROCK duet with Kelly Clarkson!!! Yes!!!!,” wrote one.
“This is unexpected, didn’t know Dwayne sang until now and loved his low voice that matches with Kelly’s high notes which she killed it once more. What a great tribute to the late Loretta Lynn,” gushed another.
“His voice really actually fits that song. Who would have guessed Dwayne is a country boy??” added someone else.
Johnson, who spent part of his childhood in Nashville, has talked about how much he loves country music many times over the course of his career. In a 2019 Instagram post, he even mentioned some of his favorite modern country artists by name.
“As a lifelong fan of country (traditional/outlaw) music, I highly reco one of my fav artists, Sturgill Simpson,” Johnson wrote. “Sturgill, Cody Jinks, Tyler Childers, Stapleton, Jamey Johnson are a few of my favs who would’ve made Jennings, Merle, Paycheck, Cash, Gosdin and the Possum himself very proud to keep the tradition going.”
“If you know, you know,” he added. “Now jump in that truck and turn em up.”
In the year 2020, the former professional wrestler posted a picture of himself on Instagram. In the photo, he is posing in front of the famous Nashville honky-tonk Tootsies. Johnson wrote in the caption that one of his goals in life when he was 15, was to become a “country music legend.”
He also said that country music legend Willie Nelson, who Johnson called “the GOAT,” gave the actor his first guitar later in life. “Which I learned to play pretty well,” Johnson wrote, jokingly adding, “Didn’t matter anyway because I proudly sing in raspy keys that don’t exist.”
