Joe Rogan is giving Spotify an ultimatum — once more.
The vastly fashionable, and vastly controversial, podcast host is threatening to give up the music streaming big, leaving their $200 million deal on the desk.
During a latest episode of “The Joe Rogan Podcast,” the previous combined martial arts commentator acquired right into a dialog with MMA fighter Josh Barnett concerning the cutthroat podcast business ring.
“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, f–k that!” Rogan stated.
Referring to latest headlines spawned by his problematic banter — from utilizing the N-word to spreading COVID-19 misinformation — Rogan, 54, described his worry of being picked aside by the general public for “every little thing.”
“There’s more people poring over it but it’s the same thing. I do it the same way,” Rogan instructed the 44-year-old heavyweight.
“If I become something different because it grew bigger, I will quit,” he concluded.
Rogan first signed with the streaming music platform in 2020 for $100 million. With nonetheless a few yr left to full the contract, the deal has already since doubled in valuation.
His troubling pandemic rhetoric culminated just lately when a gaggle of 270 medical doctors and well being care specialists referred to as Rogan a “menace to public health” in an open letter to Spotify.
Their signed warning couldn’t transfer the app to act, so musician activists Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Nils Lofgren did, asserting a boycott of the platform.
Spotify has since slapped a content material advisory on a few of Rogan’s episodes containing questionable dialogue of COVID-19.
During yet one more public evaluate, it additionally eliminated 113 episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” particularly these that includes interviews with far-right pundits, corresponding to Milo Yiannopoulos and Proud Boys affiliate Gavin McInnes.
In the meantime, his critics have certainly had time to dredge up much more troubling feedback from Rogan’s previous, together with the usage of the N-word — for which he promptly apologized upon re-reveal, calling it “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”
“It looks f–king horrible. Even to me,” Rogan stated, acknowledging his popularity for stunning statements. “I know that, to most people, there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast, and I agree with that now. I haven’t said it in years.”
During Tuesday’s episode, Rogan stated his job “requires sincerity; without it, this show doesn’t have any success.”
Barnett urged his pal and former colleague to maintain having troublesome conversations. “It resonates with people because they’re so starving for that.”
