A disgraced influencer who gained notoriety for his raw meat lifestyle has been arrested after traveling to Austin, Texas to hunt down Joe Rogan.
Brian Johnson, better known for his online persona as the Liver King, was charged with making a ‘terroristic threat’ after threatening the UFC commentator in a days-long deranged rant.
Johnson, a Houston native, was taken into custody in Rogan’s home town by Austin police and booked into to Travis County Jail about 8.30pm on Tuesday night.
Shocking video shared to Johnson’s own social media page showed an officer patting him down while he was already in handcuffs as onlookers watched on.
Johnson, 47, wordlessly complied with the officer as he was led into an unmarked police car. He was being held without bond on Tuesday night.
It is understood Johnson blames Rogan for helping to unravel his supplement empire after the famed podcaster addressed Johnson’s 2022 steroid scandal on air.
Leaked emails had exposed the Liver King’s $11,000-a-month steroid use, which contradicted his claims that his physique was ‘natural’ and the result of his raw meat based diet, in which he often boasted about eating every part of an animal from its liver to testicles.
Rogan criticized the dishonesty on his podcast, saying ‘there’s no way you can look like that in your 40s. I mean, he’s preposterously jacked.’
‘I’m on testosterone. Unlike the Liver King, I’ll tell you the truth.’
Speaking from a hotel room in Austin, where Rogan $14.4million mansion, Johnson claimed in an erratic shower video that he’d had a run in with police over his threats.
‘I challenge you today, Joe Rogan,’ he said. ‘I’m here at the Four Seasons in Austin, I’m in the shower… I didn’t sleep the day before, I was up for about 40 hours.’
Johnson went on a hard-to-follow rant about a run-in with police officers as he jumped back and forth from multiple topics in no logical order.
‘The police are coming or something’s happening… I’ve not threatened to kill anybody. Did somebody say that I was going to kill somebody?’ he said.
‘I am going to. I’ve picked a fight. Who have I picked a fight with? Joe Rogan… Why? Out of principle. Family.’
‘I’m challenging you, just as a man. I don’t want to kill you. Why would I want to kill you? You have a family. I wouldn’t want to take you away from your family.
‘I wouldn’t want that to happen so I hope that none of this is perceived as a threat. F**k you Joe Rogan, you guys can call all the cops.’
In one of the other threatening videos, Johnson dances around holding what appears to be two gold-plated guns, wearing a wolf head on his head, telling Rogan he should comfortably win in the fight.
Later, she shared another video purporting to show the moment he was searched and placed into a cop car by officers.
In the video, a member of his team, while filming, tells his wife that Johnson may have to spend up to 24 hours in jail as his matter is dealt with. It is unclear if he has been charged with anything.
Separately, Johnson said in another deranged video that he is ‘scared’ and ‘has PTSD’ after a recent stint inside a ‘Polish prison.’
‘Now I’m kinda scared about going to jail when I’m around my family because then I can’t do what I do, what a man does.
‘You can no longer protect your family when you’re in jail. That happened in Poland. I don’t want that to happen again.’
In a separate incident, Johnson was detained on August 29 at Krakow Airport in Poland moments before boarding a private jet to Houston.
Authorities found ammunition in his suitcase. Johnson received a fine and agreed to cover the costs of the investigation.
Airport spokeswoman Natalia Vince said: ‘Officers from the Airport Security Service in Balice detected in the hand luggage of an American citizen. The case was handed over to the Border Guard, who initiated appropriate procedures.’
Elsewhere in his bizarre rant, Johnson revealed ‘last Thanksgiving I was dying,’ adding that ‘the CT scan says something is in dire straits.’
Johnson had kept a relatively low profile after his steroid scandal came to light in 2022, but has resurfaced and ramped up his social media presence in the wake of a new Netflix documentary which released in April.
‘Untold: The Liver King’ explores his supplement empire and rise to the top by eating raw meat – specifically animal livers and testicles – on social media.
After another fitness YouTuber caught him in his bold faced lie with blood test results and a leaked email, Johnson filmed a video admitting fault.
‘I never expected this exposure in the public eye, and it’s been tricky as f-ck to navigate,’ he said.
In the Netflix documentary, he admitted it took more than 100 attempts to get the video right.
‘I will be better starting immediately,’ he said.
Johnson was faced with a $25million lawsuit from enraged customers who accused him of fraud and deception, but it was ultimately dropped.
