3 Songs You Didn't Know Wrestling Legend Hulk Hogan Wrote (2024)

Long before Hulk Hogan became the “Hulkster” and gained a legion of Hulkamaniacs during the Golden Age of professional wrestling under the World Wrestling Federation(now WWE), and was butting heads with Randy “Macho Man” Savage, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper,The Ultimate Warrior, Mr. T, and Sylvester Stallone—and his momentous body-slam of the 520-pound Andre the Giant during Wrestlemania III—he was a struggling musician.

“I started out playing guitar in junior high school because I wasn’t a big sports guy,” revealed Hogan of his earlier days as a musician. “I was into music and had long hair. So I started out playing guitar, and as things go as a music kid, you start playing in bands.”

After another guitarist joined one of his early bands Hogan switched to playing bass. “All of a sudden, I got in a really good band playing guitar, but then this different, really good guitar player came along—and this guy was really great,” said Hogan. “I had a choice: leave the band or start playing bass. So I chose to become a pretty darn good bass player.”

Years later, Hogan can be seen playing guitar again in the music video for his wrestling theme song “Real American.”

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Years later, Hogan dropped out of college to give more attention to his band Ruckus, which he formed in 1976. “[Ruckus] was my last band,” said Hogan. “I had been on the road for ten years, and I was a studio musician in Atlanta, a century artist.”

Ruckus gained a following of fans from some of the regional wrestlers that Hogan came across while working out at Hector’s Gym in Tampa, Florida. Hogan’s gigs with Ruckus ultimately led to his being recruited into wrestling by late wrestler Jack Brisco after he caught a glimpse of the long-haired and ripped bass player at a club one night.

After moving on to the WWF, Hogan’s career skyrocketed and extended into acting with roles in Rocky III, No Holds Barred, Mr. Nanny, and more throughout the decades. He returned to music with the release of The Wrestling Album, the debut WWF soundtrack album from 1985, which featured cameos by the once-wrestling sidekick and manager Cyndi Lauper along with the Bernard Kenny and Rick Derringer-penned Hogan theme song “Real American.”

By the late-’80s, Hogan started getting back into music and appeared in Dolly Parton‘s music video for “Headlock on My Heart,” a song she wrote for her short-lived Dolly TV show, about marrying a wrestler. Hogan also sang on the Green Jelly cover of Gary Glitter’s 1973 hit “I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am)” in 1993 before fronting the Wrestling Boot Band, featuring his then-wife Linda Bollea, former manager, wrestling legend “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart, and John J. Maguire—the writer behind many of wresters’ iconic theme songs, including Shawn Michael’s “Sexy Boy,” The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase’s “It’s All About the Money,” and Koko B. Ware’s “Do the Bird.”

In 1995, the band released a sole album, Hulk Rules, a collection of 10 songs composed by Hogan, Hart, and Maguire. The album later peaked at No.12 on theBillboardTop Kid Audiochart and had an earlier supporter: Simon Cowell.

“Hulk and everybody else there just chipped in, sat around for a few weeks, and wrote ten songs,” said Hart of how the album came together. “All of a sudden, we got a major record deal on Select Records, and the next thing you know, we’re over in Europe knocking on a few doors with the album while Hulk was doing a big promotional thing for one of his movies at the time. Then we had a magic phone call from this A&R guy, Simon Cowell, who we’d never heard of before. He brought us in and said, ‘I love this album.'”

To celebrate the Hulkster and the music he once made, here’s a look at three songs Hogan had a hand in writing.

Hogan’s “Bad to the Bone” had nothing to do with the George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ 1982 classic. His was a more heavy metal-bent rocker about getting on the highway with your Harley Davidson and your woman.

Come on baby, we’re a-going for a ride
Put your arms around me and ahold on tight
Turn up the music cuz we wanna hear it loud
The girls all know it’s a boys’ night out

Cuz we’re bad, bad, bad
To the bone
To the bone

Head out on the highway, let that Harley rip and roar
Hammer down the throttle, give that baby some more
Turn up the volume cuz we like to rock n’ roll
The girls all know that we’re outta control