A partially contrite Joe Rogan admitted today that he doesn’t “always get it right” on his podcast and promised to “do better” going forward as Spotify scrambled to contain the growing backlash to the ex-Fear Factor host’s take on Covid-19 vaccines.
The same day that CEO Daniel Ek announced adding content warnings and disclaimers to the streaming service, Rogan took to social media to “address some of the controversy taking place over the past several days” with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulling their tunes off Spotify. The duo have a big problem with Rogan’s vaccine “misinformation,” as Young called it.
Today, self-proclaimed Neil Young fan Rogan said he was “very sorry” the iconic musicians felt they had to get off Spotify because of him. “I most certainly don’t want that,” Rogan declared Sunday. Copping to the fact a lot of what he says on his hugely popular podcast is “not that prepared or fleshed out,” one-time self described “moron” Rogan also thanked his $100 million paymasters Spotify for “being so supportive during this time and I’m very sorry that this is happening to them.”
With rising Wall Street anxiety that a plethora of high profile artists could follow Young off Spotify, the company saw a loss of over $2 billion in market value the past week.
“If there’s anything that I’ve done that I could do better, it’s having more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones,” The Joe Rogan Experience host said, noting he agreed with Ek’s disclaimer and content warning plan. “I would most certainly be open to doing that. And I would like to talk to some people who have differing opinions on the podcasts in the future. I do all the scheduling myself and I don’t always get it right.”
“I don’t know what else I can do,” Rogan states too. Check out the video from Rogan below:
Regaling in his confrontational contrarian take on Covid-19 since the dawn of the pandemic, UFC commentator Rogan and Spotify got slapped down in the figurative octagon last week by “Heart of Gold” singer Young.
“Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy,’ polio surviver Young wrote to the Swedish company on January 25. “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Agreeing to the musician’s request with no word on Rogan, Spotify was essentially Neil Young-free by January 28. That same day, fellow Canadian and fellow polio surviver Mitchell said she wanted her music off the service too over. Mitchell proclaimed that Spotify were doing nothing about “irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives.” The “Both Sides Now” singer added: I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”
Mitchell and Young are far from the first to call out Rogan and Spotify. Just in the past few weeks, a group of 270 scientists, professors, doctors and healthcare workers penned an open letter to Spotify expressing concern about “false and societally harmful assertions” made on Rogan’s podcast. The January 12 letter asked Spotify to “establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform.”
Or, as Neil Young once sang: “keep on rockin’ in the free world.”
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