Joe Rogan has threatened to stop working with Spotify if his podcast becomes censored to the point at which he has to “walk on eggshells” and mind his “Ps and Qs”.
The host of The Joe Rogan Experience, which is Spotify’s biggest podcast, said in a recent episode that he’ll back out of his reported $200million, three-and-a-half-year exclusivity deal he agreed with the platform in 2020 should it decide to bow to external criticism.
Rogan became embroiled in controversy recently after Neil Young demanded his music be removed from Spotify if the platform wasn’t willing to remove podcast episodes in which Rogan had broadcasted dangerous misinformation over the COVID vaccines.
During a recent episode, Rogan, an ex-mixed martial arts commentator and TV host, got into a conversation with MMA fighter Josh Barnett about the podcast industry.
“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!” Rogan said, which you can see in a clip above.
He alluded to other controversies, which include his past use of racial slurs that recently came into the spotlight, saying that he worries about “every little thing” being picked on.
“There’s more people poring over it but it’s the same thing. I do it the same way,” Rogan added. “If I become something different because it grew bigger, I will quit.”
Spotify ended up removing dozens of The Joe Rogan Experience episodes in response to the backlash over him using the N-word in previous episodes. The streaming giant also said it would add content advisories to all episodes that contain COVID misinformation.
In other news, The Simpsons appeared to mock Rogan in a recent episode of the long-running show in which Homer meets a character resembling the podcaster.
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