Social media influencer Brian Johnson — also known as “Liver King” — was arrested in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday after seemingly challenging Joe Rogan to fight him in a series of Instagram videos.
Johnson, 47, 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.”
Brian Johnson. (Austin Police Dept)
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.
Leading podcaster Joe Rogan. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports via Reuters)
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.
