Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson voices support for Joe Rogan amid Spotify controversy

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By stefan armitage

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Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has voiced support for Joe Rogan amid the ongoing controversy surrounding his Spotify podcast.

Last week, big-name stars in the music industry - such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell - called for their catalogs to be pulled from the streaming platform over comments made on Rogan's Spotify-exclusive podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

Per Independent, Rogan, 54, recently came under fire over his discussions regarding the ongoing pandemic on his podcast - particularly the recent episodes that feature interviews with Dr. Robert Malone (#1757) and Dr. Peter McCullough (#1747).

However, in response to the backlash, Rogan took to Instagram to share a near-10-minute video explaining his side of the story, and how he aims to "do better".

You can check out Rogan's response below:

Referring to the two doctors, Rogan said: "Both these people are very highly credentialed, very intelligent, very accomplished people, and they have an opinion that's different from the mainstream narrative - I wanted to hear what their opinion is."

The podcast host then spoke about his issues with the respective episodes being labeled as containing "dangerous misinformation".

"The problem I have with the term 'misinformation', especially today, is that many of the things that we thought was misinformation, even a short while ago, are now accepted as fact," Rogan added.

Once again speaking about the two guests in question, Rogan said: "I do not know if they are right, I don't know, because I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist. I'm just a person who sits down and talks to people and has conversations with them."

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Featured image credit: Sipa US / Alamy

He then added: "Do I get things wrong? Absolutely, I get things wrong, but I try to correct them.

"Whenever I get something wrong, I try to correct it, because I'm interested in telling the truth - I'm interested in finding out what the truth is. And I'm interested in having interesting conversations with people that have differing opinions. I'm not interested in only talking to people who have one perspective."

Rogan then added that he supports Spotify wanting to add a disclaimer to controversial episodes of his podcast, and said that one thing he could "do better" is to "have more experts [on his show] with differing opinions" right after his more controversial episodes.

"I want to thank Spotify for being so supportive during this time, and I'm very sorry that this is happening to them and that they're taking so much heat from it," Rogan added.

The video has since been viewed more than 6.8 million times and amassed over 77,000 comments - many of which are from fans and supporters.

In fact, one person who voiced support for Rogan is former WWE Champion The Rock, who commented: "Great stuff here brother. Perfectly articulated."

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Credit: Instagram

The Jumanji star then hinted at a future appearance on Rogan's show, writing: "Look forward to coming on one day and breaking out the tequila with you."

During his 10-minute video, Rogan also commented on Young and Mitchell requesting to have their music removed from Spotify, saying: "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."

Earlier today, the podcast host also shared another Instagram post, joking that it is time to get back to "talking about things that are really important, like primates and mushrooms."

Featured image credit: Paul Smith / Alamy