Rockie Lynne’s life was made for the movies. An orphaned boy joins the army, becomes a motorcycle-riding country musician, then tracks down his father, only to learn that he too was a veteran — in the same Army division — a biker and a guitarist.
His journey of identifying his birth father and finding a new family is told in the film “Rockie Lynne: Where I Belong,” which premieres on Amazon Prime on April 26.
“I had spent my whole life being told all sorts of different stories because nobody knew how I had ended up at the orphanage. I was abandoned and found and put into the orphanage” in Statesville, NC, said Lynne.
By the time Lynne started to work with the genetics company 23 and Me and the filmmakers to track down his birth father, he had already found success in the country music world. His debut single in 2005, “Lipstick,” was a hit on the Billboard country chart. He has played the venerable Grand Ole Opry 14 times, and his songs have been featured on TV shows and sports broadcasts.
The movie, directed by JC Summerford, “was a crazy idea,” Lynne said.
“Then they found my father,” he said. “He played guitar in a country band, he was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and rode a motorcycle all his life. He never knew that I was born. All of a sudden, I have a family. You don’t realize you didn’t really have a family until you have one. Now at the Baptist church in North Wilkesboro there are aunts and uncles and cousins.
“It’s a whole thing I didn’t expect, so much more than some old guy trying to play guitar and sing. It’s really about hope and dreams. And whether you’re going to be a plumber or carpenter, if you stick to it, you’ll find your tribe. And that’s what we did, we found our tribe.”
An album called “Love,” which accompanies the film, includes the song “My Father’s Guitar,” about the instrument given to him by his dad, Clyde Holloway, who has since passed.
“My biological father, he played in what you’d call honky tonk bands, at casinos, his whole life, and he had one really nice guitar, a Martin 78 D35,” Lynne said. “I had known him for about five years and he was heading toward the last part of his journey. Before he passed, he gave me his guitar that he played all those years. It was overwhelming for me because he didn’t have to give me anything. It was an honor just to get to know him and meet him. I’ve been very fortunate to make a living doing this. Then to have this guitar that’s a part of my history.”
“My Father’s Guitar” was the first song Lynne wrote on that instrument.
“It’s got a weird tuning. So it just tunes the D down. I came up with the intro first,” he said, strumming it for me over the phone.
When his dad gave him the guitar, “he couldn’t play anymore. He hadn’t played it in years because of his arthritis. My father’s guitar laid silent in the closet in Millers Creek. I guess he was keeping it for me.”
The song has taken on a special meaning in concert.
“When my band plays it live, it’s acoustic guitar and fiddle and vocals. We do it like ‘Seven Bridges Road’ [a song recorded by the Eagles]. All the band comes around one mic. It’s actually quite emotional. I’ve probably done it 50 times out, and it always brings up feelings that make me feel proud. I’m able to sing it for my brother and sister. We’ve only known each other for a couple years. It’s a joy.”
Lynne’s military background has had an important impact on his life. He co-founded the Tribute for the Troops motorcycle ride, which supports fallen soldiers and their families. And the GI Bill gave him the opportunity to study at the Guitar Institute of Technology.
“I actually went into the Army so I could go to the GIT. That’s my whole plan,” he said. “I grew up in Statesville, and I rode a ’75 Harley Davidson Shovelhead to high school. I played in a band with a bunch of old men. I was kind of different than the boys here working on old farms. I wanted to go to California and be Eddie Van Halen, except taller and more handsome. That was the totality of the plan. We were very economically challenged, so the only way this would happen is the Army.”
Lynne, who opened our conversation with a compliment about our interview with progressive metal guitarist John Petrucci, has a bit of the shredder in him, and in the film is compared to Steve Vai by a colleague. He’s already at work on his next album.
“My previous albums have been more like how Nashville does records, with a chart, and you do a demo and then the band would cut their parts,” he said. “You go to see us live, and we’re kind of like a jam band, kind of like this weird, avant-garde thing we’re doing live. Some of the songs are like a ’70s jam band with a singer that talks like I do. So we hope to do that next and take that a little bit further.”
The film ‘Rockie Lynne: Where I Belong’ will be available to stream on Amazon Prime starting April 26 and will be shown by PBS stations nationally starting in September. His album, ‘Love,’ will also be released April 26.
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