Spotify row: Actor Dwayne Johnson support for Joe Rogan after racism controversy wavers

Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson has seemingly withdrawn his support for popular podcast host Joe Rogan after a slew of resurfaced videos showed the latter using racial slurs.

Dwayne Johnson had commented on Joe Rogan's explanation video, "Great stuff here, brother. Perfectly articulated."  (AFP)

Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson has seemingly withdrawn his support for popular podcast host Joe Rogan after a slew of resurfaced videos showed the latter using racial slurs. According to Deadline, Johnson has responded to fan notices on Rogan's 'N-word' controversy after initially supporting Rogan's take on the protest removal of music by Neil Young and other musicians from Spotify, where Rogan's podcast is licensed.

The musicians have spurned the streamer to object to Rogan's guests on his podcast and some of the information shared therein.

Rogan's received further backlash when singer India Arie posted a montage of clips showing Rogan using the "N-word." She posted the clips to allegedly tell fans why she was withdrawing her music from Spotify.

At the time, the 'Fast and Furious' star had commented on Rogan's explanation video, "Great stuff here, brother. Perfectly articulated."

The actor also said that he looked forward to one day appearing on Rogan's podcast and "breaking out the tequila with you."

However, Johnson was brought into the public fray once again when activist and author Don Winslow, called him out on Twitter for supporting Rogan.

Johnson has since had second thoughts on his prior comments. "Thank you so much for this. I hear you as well as everyone here 100 per cent. I was not aware of his N-word use before my comments, but now I've become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me," he wrote in a tweet.

After the India Arie clips were circulated, Rogan apologized for his use of the racial slur on Saturday via Instagram.

Rogan said, "It looks …horrible. Even to me. I know that to most people, there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast. And I agree with that now, I haven't said it in years."

As per Deadline, Spotify has quietly deleted more than 100 episodes of the Rogan podcast in the last few days. The subject matter was not known, although many of the guests on the programs were well-known conservative voices.