Joe Rogan’s move to Spotify and Texas (while uprooting from California) appears to have gone smoothly, cowboy hat and all. Before he launched his first The Joe Rogan Experience podcast from the new abode, he visited with MMA analyst Jimmy Smith on the debut installment of SiriusXM’s Unlocking the Cage with Jimmy Smith. Naturally, the discussion turned to last Friday’s tragic death of Chadwick Boseman at age 43 from cancer. Rogan, who recently discussed how he’s not afraid to cry, did not hold back while revealing how upset and stunned he was to hear of Boseman’s passing.
“I just looked at the news and said, ‘F*ck!’” Rogan recounted. “Just instantly, ‘F*ck!” That guy was cool. He was a brilliant guy. It sucks so hard that some a**holes live forever. And some really cool people die young. He was one of them.”
From there, Rogan praised Boseman’s performance in Black Panther and noted the movie’s resounding (over $1 billion) success. While wiping his eyes, he recalled the monumental moment when Boseman’s King T’Challa materialized in Endgame to resounding cheers from theater audiences. “The Avengers movie — I’ll really tear up if I talk about this — there’s a video that someone took from the audience, where they see him show up onscreen, and the whole audience goes crazy, it’s amazing.”
Clearly, Rogan’s a fan not only of Boseman’s work but also the man himself. He spoke to how important Black Panther felt to audiences, beyond being a mere superhero movie. “That movie was such a spectacular box-office success, and he was so perfect in the role,” Rogan raved. “And as a human being outside of the movie, he was so perfect. To be that guy, to be this guy who embodies what you would want from a movie star and in a position of prominence, and a guy who has a voice. To see him die at 43 of cancer [sniffles], it’s just what I said when I looked at my phone.”
Of Boseman shielding the public from his diagnosis, Rogan believes that it “speaks to his character that he suffered in silence like that, and he didn’t make a big deal of the fact that he was trying to get through cancer. It’s a bummer, man.”