Documentary chronicling Statesville musician’s search for biological dad
STATESVILLE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Rockie Lynne of Statesville has sold hundreds of thousands of records and written music for other artists, but while he knows his musical identity all too well, for years he wondered about his family roots.
Lynne eventually learned that military service and respect for troops runs in the family. The making of a new documentary Rockie Lynne: Where I Belong, now streaming on Amazon Prime, led to his biological dad and a musical heirloom he will forever cherish. “Honkey-tonks and bars underneath the stars. There never was a song he didn’t know,” Lynne sang at Tone Studios performing the song about a guitar that is more than meets the ear.
“Back when he was younger on the road he took it everywhere, or so I’m told,” Lynn continued, belting out lyrics that describe a man who was once a mystery. “There’s a part in every adopted kid, every orphan, that would like to know where they’re from,” he told Queen City News. “It’s all about timing, being in the right place at the right time,” he said Where I Belong, in pursuit of long-awaited answers.
“The gist of the movie is I was abandoned and grew up in an orphanage and then they found my biological father,” Lynne summarized.
Five years ago, he met his father Clyde Holloway for the first time.
“Meeting you is one of the most wonderful things that has happened to me in my life,” he says in the film. “I love you, too,” Holloway replied. “Guess what he did,” Lynne said, still stunned by the similarities. “He was a guitar player in a country band, he was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne in the same unit that I was in, and he rode a motorcycle his whole life. We didn’t know that was going to be the case when we started this movie.”
Rockie has long had respect for those who served America. Twenty years ago, he co-founded Tribute to the Troops. “Our riders visit Gold Star families to let them know that their continuing sacrifices will not be forgotten,” Lynne explained in the film.
All of his passions, especially made sense, after getting to know his father.
“We had so many things in common that even though I never knew where the tree was, I didn’t fall far from it,” says Lynne.
His dad never knew he had another child in the world.
After learning Rockie spent two years in an orphanage, he said something powerful. “He looked me right in the face and said, ‘I want you to know if I would have known you was in the place, I would’ve come and got you,’ and he meant it. I mean holy cow!,” Lynne recalled.
Retracing his family roots also connected him to four brothers and sisters. Holloway died in 2022, but before he passed, he passed along something special. “He said he wanted to give me something and he gave me his guitar,” Lynne said.
“Oh no, my goodness, Clyde. That’s a Martin D-35!” he says in Where I Belong. “Whenever you’d go see Clyde Holloway, Clyde would be playing that guitar.”
“I write on that guitar every day and it brings a sense of completeness to my circle,” Lynne says.
“My father’s guitar laid silent in the closet of his home in Miller’s Creek,” his new song “My Father’s Guitar” goes. “His hands no longer play the way they used to. I guess he was keeping it for me.”
It’s a single on the new album called Love.
“I thought for years that it didn’t matter who my family was. That’s what I told myself, I didn’t know where I was from, and it didn’t matter,” Lynne said.
He learned it does matter.
“I love this,” Rockie told his dad when he received the Martin. “Are you sure you want me to have this? It means the world to me?”
Now, that gift is his not-so-secret songwriting weapon.
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