The drama started when Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify after the streaming platform declined to remove Rogan’s wildly popular podcast, accusing it of spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines. Joni Mitchell and other musicians followed Yong’s lead. Their actions came after 270 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators wrote a letter calling on Spotify to remove Rogan’s show to mitigate the spread of misinformation.

Past mistakes brought to light

More drama unfolded on February 3, when Grammy-winning singer-songwriter India Arie posted a compilation video of Rogan using the N-word 24 times in 23 clips taken from older episodes of his show, The Joe Rogan Experience.

Rogan took to Instagram on February 5 to address the N-word controversy and said it was the “most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly”.

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The podcaster said the clips were taken “out of context” and spanned more than 12 years. He said his views on using the word had now changed.

“It looks f****** horrible. Even to me,” Rogan said. “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.”

The podcaster said he only used the N-word when it “came up in conversation” and denied being racist.

Spotify stands by Rogan

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defended Rogan on February 6 after the viral video showed the podcaster using the N-word multiple times on his show.

Spotify paid a reported sum of more than US$100 million to acquire the rights to Rogan’s show, which was added to the platform in September 2020.

Ek said his company had held conversations with Rogan about his past use of “racially insensitive language” and that Rogan had chosen to remove an undisclosed number of episodes from Spotify.

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Ek continued: “I want to make one point very clear – I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer. We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but cancelling voices is a slippery slope.”

Ek said in the memo that Spotify had committed to an “incremental investment” of US$100 million for developing artists from “historically marginalised groups”.

Conservative YouTube rival Rumble offers Rogan US$100 million to leave Spotify

Rumble, a YouTube-like video-sharing site with looser moderation rules that has become popular with US conservatives, wants podcaster Joe Rogan to leave Spotify for a cool US$100 million.

The company tweeted at Rogan on February 7 that it’s “ready to fight alongside” him should he decide to leave the streaming giant.

“How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years? This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit,” CEO Chris Pavlovski said in a letter posted to Twitter.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson backtracks his support for Rogan

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson backtracked on his previous support of Rogan after the video clips surfaced of the podcaster using the N-word.

After facing criticism for spreading misinformation about Covid-19, the podcaster took to Instagram to respond, saying that he was only interested in “telling the truth” and having “interesting conversations”.

Actor Dwayne Johnson commented on the video: “Great stuff here, brother. Perfectly articulated.”

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Along with his frequent use of the N-word, one clip appeared to show Rogan comparing black neighbourhoods to Planet of the Apes.

Johnson then walked back his support of Rogan in responding to a tweet from author Don Winslow highlighting the podcaster’s “racist statements”.

The Fast and Furious star responded: “I was not aware of his N-word use before my comments, but now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me.”

But Donald Trump says “keep going!”

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump said Rogan should stop apologising and “just go about” what he’s doing.

“Joe Rogan is an interesting and popular guy, but he’s got to stop apologising to the fake news and radical left maniacs and lunatics,” Trump said in a statement. “How many ways can you say you’re sorry? Joe, just go about what you do so well and don’t let them make you look weak and frightened. That’s not you and it never will be!”