Joe Rogan Acknowledges Criticism Which Led to Neil Young’s Spotify Boycott: ‘If I P—ed You Off, I’m Sorry’

Joe Rogan offered a mea culpa as a string of artists pull their music from Spotify in protest to concerns about vaccine misinformation being spread via his popular podcast.

Last week, Neil Young announced he would yank his catalog from the streaming platform, citing Spotify’s failure to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform with respect to comments made on the Joe Rogan Experience.

Fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell followed suit, as did Bruce Springsteen guitarist Nils Lofgren, who will both be removing music in solidarity.

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Now, in a clip posted to Instagram, Rogan addresses for the first time “some of the controversy that’s been going on over the past few days.”

Speaking for ten minutes, Rogan acknowledges some of his show’s shortcomings, and admitted he failed to counterbalance those guests with fringe ideas. “I don’t always get it right,” he says. “I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view.”

Those guests have included vaccine skeptic Dr. Robert Malone, who promoted baseless theories about COVID vaccines.

The podcaster admits it’s a “strange responsibility to have this many views and listeners,” and that, “I’m going to do my best in the future to balance things out.”

Rogan also responds specially to the exodus of Young and Mitchell.

“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 have been a Neil Young fan.”

During his piece to camera, Rogan says he bares “no hard feelings” towards the pair, even pointing out that he worked as security at a Neil Young show back in his late teens.

He also gives a shout out for Ricky Lee Jones’ song “Chuck E’s in Love Song,” which he incorrectly attributed to Mitchell.

As the backlash builds, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek revealed updated platform rules and a new approach to dealing with COVID-19 information, including adding a dedicated content advisory to podcast episodes that contain discussions about the virus.

“We have had rules in place for many years but admittedly, we haven’t been transparent around the policies that guide our content more broadly,” comments Ek in a corporate statement issued Sunday. “This, in turn, led to questions around their application to serious issues including COVID-19.”

In his own explainer, Rogan thanks his employer for having his back and apologized for the company “taking so much heat” in recent days.

“I’m not trying to be controversial,” he insists. “I’m going to do my best in the future to balance things out…If I pissed you off, I’m sorry.”

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