Brian Johnson, the influencer who calls himself the “Liver King,” was released from a county jail in Texas after posting $20,000 bond following his arrest for making a terroristic threat against podcaster Joe Rogan.
Johnson was released with a restraining order mandating that he say at least 200 yards away from Rogan and Rogan’s family members, according to Travis County Court records. The court also required Johnson to undergo mental health evaluation within one week of his release.
Johnson, 47, was arrested Tuesday by Austin police after detectives contacted Rogan, who told them he considered Johnson’s posts about fighting the podcaster “to be threatening.” Johnson was subsequently arrested the Four Seasons Hotel Austin on a charge of a terroristic threat causing fear of imminent serious bodily injury.
Following his release, Johnson resumed posting videos to his Instagram account, which has 3 million followers — and continued to claim he wants to fight Joe Rogan.
“We came here to pick a fight, and we’re gonna do it,” Johnson said in a video Wednesday. Addressing Rogan, he said, “I would love to man-to-man challenge you to a fucking fight. No one’s going to die. But I hope we’ll both get hurt.” Johnson claimed in another video that the WiFi password in his hotel room was “Fuck you, Joe Rogan.” He later joked that his beef was with the actor Seth Rogen.
“I’m here in Austin for one word: family,” Johnson said in a video Thursday. He referred to “a bully who thought he was big enough to say things about a man, and then try and like circulate and get more people to pile on, he forgot how that would affect the family. And then things that weren’t true were then disseminated in a movie [seen by] millions of people.” Johnson presumably was referring to the documentary film “Untold: The Liver King” on Netflix. Also Thursday, he posted a video of himself on all fours sidling down the hallway at the Four Seasons Hotel.
In the videos, Johnson revealed that he was wearing an ankle bracelet and said that he was subject to a curfew of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning.
Rogan had told police that he has never had “any interaction” with Johnson, according to the Austin Police Department. On his popular podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan has discussed Johnson’s steroid use and has mocked his “ancestral” diet, the New York Post reported.
This is the description of Netflix’s “Untold: The Liver King” documentary, released in May: “The Liver King built an online fitness empire by devouring raw meat and promoting an all-natural ancestral lifestyle, with the muscles to back it up. Featuring interviews with the man himself, his family and business partners, this documentary unravels the wild story of The Liver King’s rapid rise to internet fame and the controversy and backlash once a steroid scandal came to light.”
