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Joe Roganis speaking out following backlash to claims about theCOVID-19pandemic shared on his Spotify podcast,The Joe Rogan Experience.
The host, 54, posted anearly 10-minute videoto his Instagram account on Sunday to address the ongoing criticism surrounding his content after multiple artistsremoved their musicfrom the platform in protest.
“Now, because of this controversy …Neil Younghas removed his music from the platform of Spotify andJoni Mitchelland apparently some other people want to as well,” he said. “I’m very sorry that they feel that way. I most certainly don’t want that. I’m a Neil Young fan, I’ve always been a Neil Young fan.”
Rogan, who said he agrees with Spotify’s recent decision toinclude disclaimers on podcast episodesdiscussing COVID-19, promised to make more of an effort to “balance out” the controversial opinions on his show.
“My pledge to you is that I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives, so that we can maybe find a better point of view,” he said. “I don’t want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is. I want to show all kinds of opinions so that we can all figure what’s going on…”
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While Rogan pointed out that he has had medical professionals like Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Michael Osterholm and Dr. Peter Hotez on his show as guests, he also admitted that he never expected to have millions of fans.
“It’s a strange responsibility to have this many viewers and listeners,” he said. “It’s very strange, and it’s nothing that I prepared for and it’s nothing that I ever anticipated.”
Neil Young and Joe Rogan.getty (2)
“I do all the scheduling myself, and I don’t always get it right,” he added. “These podcasts are very strange because they’re just conversations, and oftentimes I have no idea what I’m going to talk about until I sit down to talk to people, and that’s why some of my ideas are not that prepared or fleshed out because I’m literally having them in real time. But I do my best.”
He continued, “If I pissed you off, I’m sorry. And if you enjoyed the podcast, thank you. … Thank you all the supporters and even thank you to the haters because it’s good to have some haters. It makes you reassess what you’re doing and put things into perspective and I think that’s good too.”
The video comes days after Young, 76, demanded Spotifyremove his musicfrom the platform after he claimed that Rogan was spreading misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic on his podcast. Mitchell, 78, andNils Lofgrenlater joined Young in having their music pulled from the streaming service.
To combat inaccurate information regarding the coronavirus and vaccines, Spotify announced plans on Sunday to add a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes discussion about COVID-19.
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source: people.com
