Joe Rogan 'rejected' one of his most requested guests for bizarre reason

Podcaster Joe Rogan “declined” one of his most requested podcast guests because of one bizarre safety reason.

Over recent years, Rogan has risen to become one of the most listened-to podcasters with his Spotify show The Joe Rogan Experience. He has recorded over 2,000 episodes and has around 11 million listeners per show, making him a tidy $100 million in the Spotify deal.

He hosts people from all walks of life, with previous guests on his show including Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

But, Rogan revealed he has been forced to decline one of his most wanted guests because he fears them knowing where they can find him.

During an episode in 2020, Rogan talked about Michael Franzese – a crime boss born in New York City into the Italian-American Colombo family.

Franzese dropped out of university when his father was sent to prison for 50 years for armed robbery, and at his peak, reportedly earned $8 million a week.

Eventually, Franzese was sent to prison for 10 years on conspiracy charges but came out three years later. But, he soon returned for breaking the terms of his parole.

It was when he was in prison for a second time that he became a born-again Christian and decided to move away from the mob life, instead becoming a motivational speaker and moving to California.

Rogan revealed in a 2020 episode that Franzese’s people have been in touch about him coming onto the podcast.

“He’s a motivational speaker now,” Rogan said. “He sounds like a f***ing hustler, right?”

He added: “Wait a minute. They contacted me. Yeah. Really recently I got a request to have them on.

“I don’t know if I want them to know where we are.”

It seems word got back to Franzese, who said he would be willing to go on the show if he got a proper invite.

Franzese said in his own YouTube video: “Everybody’s telling me ‘Mike, Joe Rogan mentioned you on his show he spoke about you for five or six minutes’.

“I haven’t seen it but I heard he had a graphic up about me, was reading things about me him and his guest for a couple of minutes.

“Everybody is saying ‘Mike you’ve got to get on Joe Rogan’. Hey, it’s not up to me to go to him, if he would like to invite me, I’d be happy to go.

“He is the number one guy no doubt about it. In podcasts, he does a brilliant job.”

Meanwhile, Rogan was recently brought to tears during an episode while recounting a traumatic experience where he watched his neighbours lose their homes in the LA wildfires.

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