Joe Rogan of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast issued an apology on Saturday when a video compilation emerged on social media showing him using the N-word repeatedly throughout various episodes, NPR reports.
Rogan took to Instagram to issue an apology.
The controversial podcaster posted a video to his Instagram page and said his use of the racial epithet was the "most regretful and shameful thing that I've ever had to talk about publicly" and added that the reason for saying the slur was "taken out of context."
"I know that to most people there's no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast and I agree with that now. I haven't said it in years," Rogan said, according to USA Today.
"It's not my word to use. I am well aware of that now, but for years I used it in that manner. I never used it to be racist because I'm not racist," Rogan said in the video posted to Instagram.
Despite being criticized, the podcast host said he's not racist but admitted some of his comments were "idiotic."
India.Arie took issue with Rogan and pulled her music from Spotify.
Initially, Rogan found himself in hot water when music artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from Spotify due to Rogan allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19 on his digital show.
However, when singer India.Arie announced that she was pulling her music from Spotify, she said her issue was based on Rogan's alleged racist behavior, as Blavity previously reported.
"He shouldn't be uttering the word. Don't say it under any context," the songstress said.
Spotify users canceled their subscriptions because of Rogan.
More than 70 episodes of Rogan's podcast were taken down by Spotify, according to Rolling Stone.
The controversy has also led to 19% of Spotify users canceling or planning to cancel their subscriptions, according to Variety.
