Joe Rogan clarifies on Spotify controversy; explains his side of story, but says 'sorry'

Joe Rogan put out a clarification after his podcast Joe Rogan Experience landed him and Spotify, the company that airs his show, in a controversy. The show attracted backlash as artists like Neil Young wanted to pull their music off Spotify for allowing 'misinformation' on COVID-19. This was after his show carried views suggesting that the young do not take the vaccine and take ivermectin for treatment. 

The podcaster-actor-comedian has now apologised to people who were offended by the comments. In his clarification, he stated that he had not intended to deliberately spread misinformation and that his show was just 'conversations.' He thanked Spotify for supporting him, as the streamer decided to add an advisory for shows related to COVID-19 that would help listeners read up on the facts and information on the disease and on the views of the speakers being contrary to the narrative.

Rogan shared that as a corrective measure following the controversy, he could have more different opinions in case of controversial topics and that he should research better for such shows. 

Joe Rogan issues clarification on the controversy after Spotify gets flak for COVID-19 'misinformation' 

In the video, Rogan stated that his episodes, where the controversial statements were made, were with doctors, who were renowned persons in their field.

"Both these people are highly credential, very intelligent, very accomplished people, they have an opinion, which is different from the mainstream narrative. I wanted to hear what their opinion is and these episodes have been termed as having 'dangerous misinformation'," Rogan said.

He contended the term 'misinformation' as he said the statements like 'cloth masks don't work', 'a vaccinated person can spread COVID', or 'COVID originated from a lab', would have got one suspended from social media for 'misinformation' some months ago, but today it was being commonly used by established news publications.   

"I don't know if they're right because I'm not a doctor, I am not a scientist, I am just a person who sits down and talks to people," he said.

"Do I get things wrong? I absolutely do. Whenever I get something wrong, I try to get it corrected because I am interested in telling the truth," as he shared that he had also got doctors who had different opinions than those doctors too who made the contrary to narrative statements.

On Neil Young taking his music off Spotify, Rogan said, "I am very sorry that they feel that way. I most certainly don't want that."

"I am not mad at Neil Young. I am a huge Neil Young fan," he shared. He also opened up on quitting his job as a security guard, who worked at concerts, due to the poor pay, rowdiness of the audiences and having to put out a bonfire at one of the concerts of Neil Young. He recalled singing the legend's song on his way back home after his last day at work.

"What I can try is to have more experts with different opinions right after I have the controversial ones. Often times I have no idea what I am going to talk about, that's why my conversations are not the most fleshed out because I am literally having it in real-time" he said.

The other thing he said he could do was 'research all these topics, and have the pertinent facts in hand before discussions.

"I am not trying to promote misinformation or be controversial. I don't want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is," he continued. Rogan also said, "I want to thank Spotify for being supportive during this time and I am very sorry that this is happening to them."

"If I p****d you off, I am sorry," was one of his last comments in the video.

Image: Facebook/Joe Rogan