Despite Initial Doubts, Joe Rogan Reveals Massive Influence That Led to the Birth of JRE and Eventual $200 Million Worth Spotify Deal

Joe Rogan successfully carved out several ventures! One such is his own million-dollar podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’. The 55-year-old recently shared the real reason behind his decision to start a podcast. While it eventually blew up and bagged a big Spotify deal, there’s a lot that went into its ideation.

It turns out a very renowned personality inspired the UFC commentator. On the #1982 episode of his podcast, he mentioned that there were quite a few people doing podcasts when he decided to start his own. But one of the primary reasons was his love for radio.

Joe Rogan used to work on a radio show

The 55-year-old was ahead of his time when he started his JRE podcast. Rogan said, “I think I got into it because of radio, really. Doing like the Opie and Anthony show.” 

He mentioned how much fun he had while doing the ‘Opie and Anthony’ show, hanging around with comics and talking about whatever they wanted. But when he left the studio, he would miss hanging around those people. Rogan added, “When I would leave there, I’d go, ‘God, that’s so fun. I love doing that. I wish I could do that all the time.'”

A prominent radio personality influenced Rogan’s podcast idea

Anthony Cumia from the ‘Opie and Anthony’ show inspired Joe Rogan to build his own podcast. It happened when he saw the setup Cumia had built for himself at his home. Rogan said, “Anthony Cumia… he built a studio in his basement of his house in Long Island.” He added, “He used to do a show called ‘Live from the Compound.’ And he had like a green screen behind him. He played karaoke with a machine gun [and] he was always hammered.”

Joe Rogan took a liking to the way Cumia set up his show and decided to try his own luck. “He’d just stream it on the internet and I was like, ‘That looks like so much fun. Maybe I should start something like that,” said the 55-year-old.

Rogan then went to seek help from the Canadian-American comedian, Tom Green, who set up his house like a television studio. He said, “I thought maybe I should do something like that. Doing something on the internet.” Joe Rogan wasn’t sure if people would like to see his show, but he went ahead for the fun of it. “Maybe a lot of people aren’t going to see it, but it will be fun.”

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Joe Rogan started his podcast in 2009 and since then, JRE has become the biggest podcast that draws millions of listeners and viewers every episode. He is nearing almost 2000 episodes and his show is worth over $200 million. In spite of criticism from noted figures, the viewership for ‘JRE’ remained high. Also, making it to Spotify’s list of ‘Top Podcasts’ is no easy task. Rogan doesn’t look like he’ll slow down anytime soon. What do you think?

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