If you spend a lot of time doomscrolling social media, you may be well acquainted with the moniker of the so-called “Liver King.” The influencer, real name Brian Johnson, was inescapable throughout the early 2020s, having built an online audience of millions in just a few short months of posting. Despite having appealed to such mainstream cultural footholds as the Joe Rogan Experience, Johnson’s content has all but disappeared from the pop culture zeitgeist. This is thanks, in large part to a few career-defining controversies.
The Liver King and his rocky road to fame serve as the subject of the recently released Netflix docu-series Untold: The Liver King, which covers numerous figures in sports and entertainment. In order to learn more about this complicated influencer and the rise and fall of his career, let’s take a brief moment to unpack the life and legacy of Brian Johnson and see what we can learn about the future of fitness, wellness, and culinary content on the web.
Who is the Liver King?
As you might learn from tuning into Untold: The Liver King, Brian Johnson is a fitness guru hailing from San Antonio, Texas. The hulking, muscle-bound man built his brand on ancestral living, lifting weights, and most importantly: eating raw organ meat. Though many viewers found the Liver King’s content off-putting from the very beginning, others were drawn to the social media guru’s allegedly clean lifestyle, simple routines and loud, brash vocal delivery. At the height of his popularity, Johnson was routinely bringing in millions of views per video, selling an untold stockpile of supplements through his website, and had amassed more than six million followers across several key verticals.
Unfortunately for Johnson’s brand, much of the Liver King’s empire was built on falsehoods. In late 2022, just a few years into his reign as king of the social media fitness space, leaked emails revealed that the influencer had been relying on massive deposits of steroids and human growth hormone in order to achieve his bulging, cut-up frame. According to a report in Newsweek, Johnson was spending upwards of $11,000 each month on anabolic steroids and similar drugs. For many followers, this was a complete misrepresentation of Johnson’s entire identity, causing a mass exodus of subscribers and ultimately leading to the downfall of his supplement sales income. Since then, the 48-year-old has been mostly silent on the net, opting to lick his wounds in relative obscurity, as his brand became synonymous with fraud. He even faced a $25 million lawsuit from some of his followers, though the case was eventually dropped.
Where is Brian Johnson now?
Today, Johnson has effectively concluded his social media career. The Untold documentary, which serves as his first major public appearance in three years, paints a conflicting picture of the influencer’s goals moving forward. According to an interview with Time, filmmaker Joe Pearlman claims that Johnson is quite different in his daily life than he was when portraying the Liver King persona.
Discussing his early interactions with Johnson, Pearlman stated, “It was full on, it was performative, it was outrageous. He was trying to shock at every turn: we were constantly on our toes with what was going to happen next.” But, as filming of the doc carried on, Pearlman says it soon became clear that “he was looking for some sort of reinvention. Whether he delivered that or I allowed him to deliver that onscreen is a different conversation. But I think that was the intention for sure.”
Some Netflix subscribers have suggested that the documentary is, in effect, a soft relaunch of the Liver King’s internet career. As the King himself proclaims within the project, “How do I repent? I don’t know what comes next. I don’t have the answer to that yet.” Still, his social media pages seem to be seeing a major uptick in activity following the release of Untold, with the Liver King himself addressing a possible return. Per Men’s Fitness, Johnson took to Instagram reels to express, “As a family, we said yes to making a movie. Most of it seems to be true. Liver still is king, we eat nose to tail, every day.”
How did Liver King meet his wife?
Despite his muscular physique and impressive following, you might find yourself wondering what would attract a woman to a man who regularly chows down on raw bull testicles on camera. Brian Johnson met his wife Barbara, AKA the Liver Queen, back in 2004, and quickly fell in love.
Per a profile in GQ, the pair met during a snowboarding retreat, and both describe their relationship as an example of love at first sight. Barbara was working as a dentist during this time, and even went into business with Johnson before pivoting to the ancestral lifestyle. Once the social media success launched Johnson into the stratosphere, Barbara joined the team and oversaw the nutritional supplement orders of subscribers. Together, the couple shares two children, Stryker and Rad, who are often nicknamed the “Savage Liver Boys.”
What is Liver King’s net worth?
Over the years, the Liver King has proudly claimed to have a net worth of more than $310 million. While these numbers are somewhat believable due to his excessive income, it’s estimated that the real figure is much closer to $12 million. Either way, Johnson has found a way to create generational wealth with his lifestyle and fitness content. Money Made evaluates the Liver King’s empire at the $12 million figure, even though Johnson himself maintains that he made over $10 million per year during the height of his internet fame.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the Liver King’s house?
Over the years, the Liver King has been quite candid about his homestead, where he shot most of his content along with his family. Johnson’s official YouTube channel even offers a tour of his Willis, Texas mansion, in case subscribers want an up-close and personal look at how he’s living when he’s not fully off the grid.
How much does the Liver King really make per year?
As stated, Johnson has routinely argued that he brings in more than 8 figures annually. The real figures are unknown, and difficult to estimate with any degree of accuracy, though Money Made estimates that Johnson takes in between 1-4 million dollars each year from his various business interests.
