Steroid-fueled ego meets legal reality…
Brian Johnson — better known to his online followers as the “Liver King” — was arrested in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday after posting a bizarre string of Instagram videos threatening podcaster and former Fear Factor host Joe Rogan. Dressed in a wolf pelt and holding what looked like gold-plated firearms, Johnson openly challenged Rogan to a fight: “I’m picking a fight with you. Your rules, I’ll come to you, whenever you’re ready.”
Johnson rose to viral fame by preaching what he called the “ancestral tenets,” which involved raw organ meat, heavy lifting, and zero room for modern conveniences. His core claim? That his body was the natural product of this primal routine. But in 2022, leaked emails and lab results revealed the real fuel behind the façade: roughly $11,000 a month spent on steroids and human growth hormone. The fitness world, which had long suspected as much, wasn’t surprised. Rogan himself had frequently mocked the idea that Johnson was all-natural.
After the leaks, Johnson posted a superficially contrite video admitting to steroid use and apologized for misleading his massive audience. But that didn’t stop him from leaning further into the madness.
After learning about Johnson’s threatening videos, Rogan — who has never met him — alerted the Austin Police Department (APD), citing concerns about Johnson’s mental state. He also told police he’d heard Johnson might be battling “a significant drug issue.” Officers later located Johnson at the Four Seasons in Austin, where he was arrested without incident.
He now faces a charge of making a terroristic threat — a Class B misdemeanor in Texas. His bond was set at $20,000, with court conditions including no contact with Rogan, staying at least 200 yards away from Rogan and his family, and completing a mental health evaluation within a week of release.
Instead of laying low, Johnson returned to social media almost immediately, again calling out Rogan while injecting himself with blue scorpion venom and referencing a previous visit to Rogan’s comedy club in Austin. He claimed to have given Rogan a “gift” — not a bomb, he emphasized.
MySA has additional details on his decision to double down:
Johnson says in the video that he doesn’t want to “say any details nor any names” in regard to his arrest, alluding again to his fight challenge and declaring the videos “won’t ever stop.”
However, Johnson’s subsequent videos showed him wearing an ankle monitor and walking around the Texas Capitol grounds. Despite being repeatedly told to leave by capitol police, Johnson walked his two Dobermans to the Texas African-American History Monument and confirmed he was in town to fight Joe Rogan.
“We’re in the Capitol. We’re here for Rogan vs. Liver King,” Johnson said in an Instagram post. “Rogan vs. Liver King, that’s what we’re doing here. … We’ll be here all week though.”
Rogan told APD that he has never interacted with Johnson. He has yet to make a public comment in regard to Johnson’s arrest.
Austin police confirmed Johnson remains under active investigation.
The bizarre saga is the latest chapter in Johnson’s flameout, which is already the subject of a Netflix documentary released last month titled Untold: The Liver King. What started as a viral marketing gimmick built on fake primal wisdom is ending in courtroom drama, mental health evaluations, and a very public reckoning.
In the end, it’s not just a story of steroids or social media antics. It’s about what happens when self-delusion, artificial testosterone, and viral fame spin completely off the rails.
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I’ve never heard of this guy, but he is nuts. Just trying to steal a little fame, by threatening someone more popular than he.