Social media influencer ‘Liver King' released from jail — and is still seemingly challenging Joe Rogan to fight
Social media influencer Brian Johnson — also known as "Liver King" — has been released from jail in Austin, Texas, after seemingly challenging Joe Rogan to fight him in a series of Instagram videos.
In a new video posted to his 2.9 million Instagram followers on June 25, Johnson, 47, does not address Rogan by name but refers to the podcast host's Comedy Mothership club because he does not 'want to give any details, nor names.'
'Some guy, he thought if you just put him in jail … have the Violent Crimes Division, have them come arrest him for a terroristic threat, and the whole time that terroristic threat you thought was a bomb or something, inside that box, is actually a present back for you and your Mothership colleagues for having my wife and me at the Mothership,' said Johnson, before claiming the terroristic threat charge has since been reduced.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Liver King (@liverking)
In a separate video, Johnson shows off his ankle monitor and reveals that Rogan took out a restraining order against him, which prevents him from coming within 200 yards of the podcaster. Johnson, at times calling Rogan by name, said he has a 9 p.m. curfew and is not allowed out of 'that space,' presumably his Austin hotel room, until 6 a.m. the following day. 'Rogan vs. Liver King,' Johnson added, is still happening.
Johnson, in another video, said that he's been ordered to get a psychiatric evaluation this week and then once a month 'for a while.' He reiterated, however, that the videos aren't going to stop. He also repeatedly calls out actor Seth Rogen instead of Rogan himself.
'How do you train for a Seth Rogen kind of fight? He's a very qualified filmmaker, I think,' said Johnson.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Liver King (@liverking)
Johnson was booked around 5:30 p.m. local time on June 24 by the Austin Police Department. He was charged with terroristic threat, a Class B misdemeanor, according to police records.
Johnson, in a series of videos posted to his 2.9 million Instagram followers between June 23 and 24, expressed interest in wanting to fight Rogan, with whom he's been beefing with online for several years. Johnson chronicled his journey to Austin, where Rogan lives.
'Detectives reviewed the posts and observed that Johnson was traveling to Austin while continuing to make threatening statements,' the police said in a statement obtained by the Hollywood Reporter. 'Detectives contacted Mr. Rogan, who stated he had never had any interaction with Johnson and considered the posts to be threatening. Based on this information, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson on a charge of terroristic threat.'
In a video posted by Johnson on June 23, the social media influencer, shirtless and with a wolf head hat on, challenges Rogan to a battle, as meditation music plays in the background.
'Joe Rogan, I'm calling you out,' said Johnson. 'My name's Liver King. Man to man, I'm picking a fight with you. Yeah. I have no training in jiu-jitsu. You're a black belt. You should dismantle me. But I'm picking a fight with you. Your rules. … I'll cut weight. I'll come to you. Whenever you're ready. Whenever you're ready to go.'
Johnson continued to document his journey to Rogan in a series of rambling videos, often addressing the podcaster directly. In one video shared on June 24, Johnson tells Rogan, 'We have real tension.'
'Joe Rogan, we don't have to make videos to pretend anymore. All of this is happening. We're coming to you,' said Johnson. 'I've challenged you, man to man, to a fight. Honorable. … You can hold the hand of somebody that you love, because what happens next to you, you're going to need to remember that feeling. You're going to need something more than what you did to give you something to fight for, because I have my family to fight for and that I'll die for them.
'And you're a black belt, [but] you've never come across something like this,' he continued. '[I'm] willing to die, hoping that you'll choke me out. I pray to God, that's a dream come true because it feels good.'
Police located Johnson at his Four Seasons Hotel room in downtown Austin at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday night, according to KXAN Austin. In the moments leading up to his arrest, Johnson, in a video posted to his Instagram, is seen embracing his wife, Barbara, and their two sons, Stryker and Rad, while saying a prayer. Johnson is then shown being handcuffed and escorted into the back of a police vehicle in his most recent video, which was posted on June 24.
Johnson rose to internet fame as a controversial social media influencer known for leading what he calls an 'ancestral lifestyle' that is driven largely by his consumption of raw meat. Johnson's rise to notoriety and eventual fall from grace was chronicled in the Netflix documentary, Untold: The Liver King, released on May 13, 2025. The documentary also explores Johnson's contentious history with Rogan, and the moment that ignited it.
During a December 2022 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan mocked Johnson's assertion that his bulked-out physique was the result of his ancestral diet rather than steroid use.
After emails between Johnson and a doctor were leaked in 2022, the fitness influencer was forced to admit that he regularly spent $11,000 per month on performance-enhancing drugs. Johnson was later hit with a $25 million class-action lawsuit, which alleged that the influencer and his company led a 'marketing and advertising scheme,' with his 'dangerous and life-threatening' raw meat diet. The lawsuit was later dismissed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
20 minutes ago
- New York Post
Social media star Salt Hank's sandwich shop is great — not a gimmick
French dip is having its day. The roast beef-and-jus sandwich, long an also-ran to pastrami-on-rye, is now the toast of places from Minetta Tavern and Anton's in Manhattan to Brennan & Carr in Sheepshead Bay. It's long been a menu favorite at beloved chain Hillstone. The buzziest of all is just-opened Salt Hank's at 280 Bleecker St., the first-ever eatery from social media sensation and cookbook writer Henry Laporte, who has 2.6 million follows on TikTok and 1.6 million on Instagram as @salt_hank. Laporte's head chef, Daniel Rubenfeld, is an alum of Thomas Keller's chophouse TAK Room. It shows in how the prime rib, from meat maestro Pat La Frieda, is carefully sliced and shredded to tongue-tingling perfection. 5 Social media star Henry Laporte has opened a sandwich shop dedicated to the French Dip. Tamara Beckwith The 10-inch-long baguettes are delivered fresh every morning from crazy-popular nearby bistro Frenchette. Those credentials, and Laporte social media following, wouldn't mean a thing if Salt Hank's French dip wasn't so good. It's the only thing on the menu — no burgers or other sandwiches — save for remarkably crisp, matchstick-thin fries ($6), house-made limemade with just-right sweetness and a few canned sodas. The $28 French dip is big enough to food two people with big appetites. It delivers miraculous mouth feel along with rich, multi-tiered flavor. The fine-cut beef is dipped in jus before being layered with provolone cheese, caramelized onions and an aioli flavored with horseradish, chives and roasted garlic. It emerges from the oven warm, moist and begging to be devoured. Some customers use their hands only, but I preferred a fork to pick through layers of crunchy crust, fluffy sourdough, and yummy tangles of shredded beef and melted cheese. 5 Daniel Rubenfield (left) is the head chef at Salt Hank's, while Laporte works the line. Tamara Beckwith 5 The meat is perfectly sliced and caramelized onions add to the flavor. Tamara Beckwith The jus itself was a rich, complex revelation — I could almost have it as a soup all by itself. It's generously served in a large cup, unlike some other spots where you barely get any. T The restaurant is a plain, comfortable room with formica-top tables, a counter with a half-dozen seats and pictures of Laporte's book, Salt Hank: A Five Napkin Situation. Customers line up at a kitchen counter and wait for friendly staff to bring them their orders, while grooving to a soundtrack that hops from Notorious B.I.G. to Cardi B. Laporte himself works on the line, putting the finishing touches to assemble the sandwich. On my visit, he was wearing a cap that said, 'Lo Siento' – Spanish for 'I'm sorry.' 5 The French Dip is the only thing on the menu, save for French fries and a few beverages. Tamara Beckwith 5 Arrive early. Salt Hank's often sells out by 3 p.m. Tamara Beckwith But there's nothing to be sorry about, unless you get there too late for the 75 pounds of beef they go through each day. While Salt Hank's purports to stay open until 5 p.m., they usually run out of beef by 3 p.m. Get there early — and hungry.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Cause of death: Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson reportedly died of respiratory arrest
Brian Wilson's cause of death has come to light, two weeks after the musician best known for shaping the sound of the Beach Boys died at age 82. Wilson died June 11 reportedly of respiratory arrest, according to his death certificate obtained and published Thursday by TMZ. The death certificate shows Wilson also died of sepsis and cystitis (inflammation of the urinary bladder). He also suffered multiple health issues — neurogenerative disorder, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic respiratory failure and chronic kidney disease — before his death. Wilson died more than a year after it was revealed he was placed under a conservatorship due to declining cognitive health in May 2024. For decades, Wilson battled mental health issues and drug addiction. A representative for Wilson did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment on Thursday. Wilson's family announced the musician's death in a somber post shared to Facebook, Instagram and his website. 'We are at a loss for words right now.' The cause of death was not revealed at the time. His loved ones continued: 'Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize we are sharing our grief with the world.' As news of Wilson's death spread, other music luminaries including Elton John, the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, Bruce Springsteen, and Mick Fleetwood paid tribute on social media. California Gov. Gavin Newsom also honored Wilson and his role in creating the California sound with hits including 'Surfer Girl,' 'California Girls' and 'Wouldn't It Be Nice.' 'Wilson fundamentally changed modern music, helping make the Beach Boys not only the defining American band of their era, but also the California band to this day,' Newsom said in a statement. 'He captured the mystique and magic of California, carrying it around the world and across generations.' Wilson's death certificate also reveals that he was laid to rest a week after his death at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary. Wilson died more than a year after his wife Melinda's death in January 2024. She was 77. He is survived by six children, including daughters Carnie and Wendy, who made up two-thirds of the Grammy-nominated pop vocal group Wilson Philips. He is also preceded in death by his brother Dennis, who drowned in 1983 while diving in Marina Del Rey, and Carl, his other brother, who died of lung cancer in 1998. Former obituaries editor Steve Marble contributed to this report.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
‘Jeopardy!' fans divided after winning contestant's final clue is linked to her famous relative
'Jeopardy!' fans were left divided after a contestant's winning answer had an unexpected tie to her famous ancestor. On Monday's episode of the long-running NBC game show, one of the three contestants, Emily Croke, answered a question correctly and became champion — after being given a clue by host Ken Jennings referring to an ancestor of hers. The prompt read: 'In 1895, the Vassar-educated wife of this man wrote, 'Thousands of dollars may be paid for a copy of Shakespeare.'' Croke wrote down the correct answer, 'Folger,' prompting Jennings to ask her about her decision. 3 'Jeopardy!' contestant Emily Croke revealed that her winning answer was a famous relative of hers. Jeopardy/ABC She replied that the woman referred to in the clue Jennings gave her had been her 'great, great, great-aunt Emily.' A stunned Jennings asked the contestant, 'Emily Folger, the one we mentioned in the clue is the person you, Emily Croke, are named after?' in a viral clip shared by the official 'Jeopardy!' Instagram account. 'Yes,' Croke said, nodding several times, to which Jennings responded, 'Wow.' 3 Ken Jennings was left stunned by Croke's answer. Jeopardy/ABC Croke ended up winning the game thanks to the final clue, ending her run with a total of $13,201. She is set to return to see if she can continue her winning streak. Emily Folger, co-founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, the world's largest collection of the playwright's works, created the library along with her husband, Standard Oil chairman Henry Clay Folger. 3 The winning clue Croke was shown. Jeopardy/ABC Croke's luck was dubbed 'the most amazing coincidence in the history of 'Jeopardy!'' by one commenter on the clip. 'What are the odds of that happening?' a second commenter asked. 'Was in the audience for this one. It truly surprised everyone,' a third wrote. Others felt the question was unfair on the other contestants. 'How is anyone not a family member supposed to deduce the correct reply? What am I missing?' one wrote. Another added that it was 'not fair' and said Croke should be 'disqualified.'
