It hasn’t been an easy start to 2022 for one of the world’s biggest podcasting personalities. In just a few months, Joe Rogan has been publicly chastised for his views on COVID-19 vaccinations and resurfaced videos of him liberally using the N-word.
Now, it seems the host of the Joe Rogan Experience is contemplating his overall future in the podcasting realm.
In a recent episode featuring MMA heavyweight legend, Josh Barnett, Rogan admitted he didn’t want to sacrifice his personality and independence for his podcast’s success, and told Barnett he would happily quit podcasting if it began forcing him to “walk on eggshells”.
“If I become something different because it grew bigger, I will quit. If it gets to a point that I can’t do it anymore, where I have to do it in some sort of weird way where I walk on eggshells and mind my p’s and q’s, fuck that!” Said Rogan.
The subject was initially brought up by Barnett who said, “We’re buddies and we’ve been doing this for a while now. But now this shit [the podcast] is so fucking huge… Is everyone going to pour over every single little thing?”
“They will, because there’s more people pouring over it,” Rogan responded. “But it’s the same thing.”
Barnett added, “I get you. You need to do whatever you’re going to do with 100 per cent sincerity”.
For anyone still fiddling with the dials on their AM radio, Rogan signed a historic licensing deal with Spotify in May 2020 to have his program exclusively streamed on the tech giant’s platform.
While the initial deal was worth a reported $US100 million, recent estimates suggest the figure has actually doubled to a whopping $US200 million.
However, the price of increased fame is more than numbers on a sheet of paper.
Earlier this year, Rogan caught the ire of rock n’ roll legend, Neil Young, who abandoned Spotify in protest to Rogan having hosted noted COVID-19 vaccine sceptics, Peter McCullough, and Robert Malone on his podcast.
Luckily, Neil Young – who also encouraged exodus from fellow music legend Joni Mitchell – has found his new streaming home in a far more ethical organisation that takes care of its employees, Apple Music.
At least we won’t have to see Rogan and Young on the same platform anytime soon.
Following controversy over past use of racial slurs, Rogan and Spotify have since pulled 110 episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience from the online platform.
Those episodes included guests such as conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, far-right troll, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Proud Boys founder, Gavin McInnes.
