Joe Rogan Mocks Neil Young’s Hypocritical Flip-Flop on Leaving Spotify

Remember when Neil Young threatened to leave Spotify over Joe Rogan?

And did leave.

Young accused Rogan of allegedly spreading “disinformation,” a catch-all term used by the Left during the pandemic for anything outside government guidelines regarding the virus.

Nevermind that so many of those government narratives turned out to be wrong or at least highly questionable. From school lockdowns, to the origin of COVID, to the efficacy of masks and social distancing.

Being a good leftie, Young thought that anyone who went against government orthodoxy during the pandemic should be silenced or purged.

Unfortunately for the singer, Rogan is so popular that there was no way he was going anywhere, even if Young chose to.

But now… two years after this controversy…

Young is back on Spotify, and Rogan thinks it’s funny as hell.

‘Great to Know You’ve Got Some Ethics’

Rogan made his comments during an interview on his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast with writer and political commentator James Lindsay, when he took a slight break from their conversation to acknowledge Young’s return.

“By the way, Neil Young came back to Spotify. Congratulations, Neil,” Rogan said with a snicker. “And his excuse was he said that because all of the platforms are now allowing my disinformation, he’s just going back on Spotify too.”

“Great to know you’ve got some ethics,” Rogan added, laughing.

Lindsay replied, “Well, everybody’s doing it these days—disinformation.”

They were having fun with it.

As they should, since the whole thing was ridiculous.

Newsweek recapped, “Rogan’s repeated use of the podcast to disseminate fringe COVID-19 viewpoints led a group of 270 scientists and healthcare professionals to publish a letter in January 2022 calling on Spotify to take action against the spread of misinformation on its platform.”

“While Spotify responded to the medical professionals’ request, saying it would publish its platform policy regarding the promotion of medical information and ‘add a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19,’ it stopped short of meeting Young’s demand to remove the JRE,” it continued.

More from Newsweek:

Young subsequently departed Spotify after the platform stuck with Rogan. Other artists, including Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren, also removed their music from the platform at the time.

Young this week announced that he had made a return to Spotify, citing the expansion of Rogan’s show onto other streaming platforms as his reason. In February, Rogan inked a new multiyear deal—estimated to be worth up to $250 million—with Spotify that saw the streamer drop the exclusive part of their contract, allowing his show to air elsewhere.

Rogan Still a ‘Huge Fan’ of Young

This came after Young announced his return to Spotify, coming crawling back with his tail between his legs.

“I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all,” veteran musician Young explained in a statement. “So I have returned to Spotify, in sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it.”

Rogan maintains that he’s a “huge fan” of Young and he’s not mad at him.

But the most popular podcaster in the world’s point about ethics as it relates to Neil Young – duly noted.