After initially praising Joe Rogan’s response to controversy surrounding his podcast, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson backtracked his support after receiving backlash online.
On January 31, Joe Rogan apologized for episodes of his podcast — The Joe Rogan Experience — that caused musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to pull their catalogs off of Spotify in response.
The Rock praised Rogan’s response and even teased his own appearance on the podcast in the future. However, days later allegations of racism arose against Rogan, which caused the Rock to rescind his initial praise.
“Learning moment for me”
Dear @donwinslow Thank you so much for thisI hear you as well as everyone here 100%I was not aware of his N word use prior to my comments, but now I've become educated to his complete narrative.Learning moment for me.
Mahalo, brother and have a great & productive weekend.DJ https://t.co/3mBf85wRoe
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) February 5, 2022
In response to the backlash for his previous support, The Rock said he heard everyone’s complaints and was learning from the experience.
“I hear you as well as everyone here 100% I was not aware of his N word use prior to my comments,” the actor told author Don Winslow. “But now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me.”
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Whether or not this effectively cancels The Rock’s appearance on the JRE podcast remains to be seen.
Rogan responds to racism allegations
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In a February 5 Instagram post, Rogan called the allegations “most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”
The host explained that a compilation of him using a historically racist word being circulated online has been “taken out of context” from “12 years of conversations” on the JRE podcast.
