Fitness influencer Liver King arrested, charged after threatening Joe Rogan

Global News

2 days ago

Fitness influencer Brian Johnson, also known as Liver King, was arrested Tuesday evening at a Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas, after making threats against podcaster Joe Rogan on Instagram.
The Austin Police Department took Johnson into custody around 6 p.m. on June 24 after he posted a video in which he asked Rogan to fight him.
'Joe Rogan, I'm calling you out. My name's Liver King. Man to man, I'm picking a fight with you. I have zero training in jiu-jitsu. You're a black belt. You should dismantle me,' Johnson started his video.
'But I'm picking a fight with you. Your rules. Whatever you want me to weigh, I'll weigh. I weighed 190 this morning. I'll come to you whenever you're ready. Whenever you're ready to go,' he continued, before dancing and adding, 'I'm on a vibration plate by the way. That's why I'm shaking.'
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'You can't pick a fight with a real king and then expect there not be an actual fight,' he added.
In a statement, Austin police said that detectives reviewed the posts 'and observed that Johnson was travelling to Austin while continuing to make threatening statements.'
'Detectives contacted Mr. Rogan, who stated he had never had any interaction with Johnson and considered the posts to be threatening,' the statement continued. 'Based on this information, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson on a charge of Terroristic Threat.'
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'Joe Rogan, we don't have to make videos to pretend anymore. All of this is happening. I'm coming to you and challenge you man to man to a fight — honourable … the world is watching. They'll make the videos for us and you don't have to hold a camera,' Johnson said in a follow-up video before his arrest.
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'You can hold the hand of somebody you love because what happens next to you, you're going to need to remember that feeling.'
In another video, shared with his 2.9 million followers on Instagram, Johnson arrived at a hotel in Austin, where Rogan is based, and said, 'Guess what, you're dead b—h. You're dead.'
Another video was shared on Johnson's Instagram account moments before his arrest shows him pacing around in his hotel room while still discussing a fight with Rogan. Following this, a video was posted of Johnson in handcuffs outside the hotel while he was being placed in a car by police.
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Johnson, who gained popularity for his controversial raw meat diet and his 'ancestral lifestyle,' was charged with making terroristic threats and booked in the Travis County Jail.
He is required to have no contact and to stay 200 yards away from Rogan and his family members, including their homes and places of business. Austin police said this remains an active investigation.
After Johnson was released from jail, he began to upload new videos where he continued to hint at a fight with Rogen and spoke about his arrest.
'Put him in jail. Have the violent crimes division come arrest him for a terroristic threat and the whole time that terroristic threat you thought was a bomb or something inside that box. It was actually a present,' Johnson said, referencing a box he brought to the hotel with Rogan's podcast logo on the front.
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'You thought the videos would stop but they won't ever stop.'
In another new video, Johnson referenced a podcaster by saying 'somebody whose name rhymes with Rogan' and 'Seth Rogen.'
Johnson also revealed he has been ordered to get a psychiatric evaluation this week that will continue on a monthly basis.
Rogan has previously spoken about Johnson on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. In a 2023 episode, Rogan discussed Johnson's alleged use of steroids, saying, 'Now that we know he's full of sh-t, we're talking about the Liver King by the way.'
'If you don't know who the Liver King is, there's a guy called the Liver King and he's this guy who walks around everywhere with no shirt on … big bushy beard, super jacked,' Rogan said. 'He was telling people the way he got that way is … he eats raw liver and lifts like a maniac and that's how he's so jacked, but it's preposterous.'
Their dispute was also featured on Netflix's documentary, Untold: The Liver King.