Sharon Stone cancels Spotify amid Joe Rogan backlash: ‘His behaviour is dangerous’

The Basic Instinct actor says Joe Rogan is ‘risking people’s lives with his idiocy’

Sharon Stone has criticised Joe Rogan for spreading Covid-19 misinformation on his Spotify-exclusive podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

In an interview with TMZ on Tuesday (1 February), the 63-year-old actor responded to Rogan’s recent statement backing Spotify’s decision to label Covid-19 content with advisory warnings, saying: “[Rogan] should put a disclaimer that he’s an a**hole.”

Backlash over The Joe Rogan Experience began after an episode during which Rogan interviewed Robert Malone, a widely discredited doctor. Malone has previously, falsely claimed he’s the inventor of mRNA vaccines, that its *f***ing nuts* Americans have to get inoculated, and compared the country’s vaccination drive with a “mass psychosis” programme.

On 31 December, members of the American medical community urged Spotify to take “action against mass-misinformation events” shared on its platform, specifically on Rogan’s popular podcast, in an open letter that quickly went viral.

Since then, musicians such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Nis Lofgren, Graham Nash, and India Arie have removed their music from Spotify over Rogan’s podcast and, specifically, the spread of “lies costing people their lives”.

Rogan responded to the criticism in a video posted to Instagram on Sunday (30 January) during which he said he harboured “no hard feelings” towards Young or Mitchell. He also thanked Spotify for continuing to support his work. He also said he would “do his best to research topics” in the future, and backed Spotify’s content disclaimer labels.

Now, the Basic Instinct actor has derided Rogan’s apology, saying that he’s “risking people’s lives with his idiocy”.

“Covid and infectious diseases are science, and they are fact-based situations,” Stone told TMZ, “So the pretence that these are opinions is dangerous, and his behaviour is dangerous.”

Last weekend, Stone pledged her support to Young, announcing the decision to cancel her Spotify accounts “in the name of truth” on Twitter.

A “front-line, lifetime, infectious disease worker” who has won multiple humanitarian awards – including the Nobel Peace Summit Award in 2013 – Stone suffered the loss of two Montana-based family members to Covid.

In August 2020, TMZ reported that the actor’s grandmother and godmother had died from coronavirus. At the time, Stone’s sister and brother-in-law were also hospitalised with Covid, while her mother – who was asymptomatic – was struggling to secure a test.

Meanwhile, Dwayne Johnson has divided his fans by publicly supporting the 54-year-old podcast host.

On Tuesday (1 February), Johnson, 49, replied to Rogan’s apology video in which he addressed the platform’s policy changes that have been introduced following widespread criticism from the scientific community and musicians like Young and Mitchell.

“Great stuff here, brother. Perfectly articulated,” Johnson commented under the video that was shared on Sunday.