Joe Rogan unexpectedly got emotional during the opening moments of his latest podcast episode with singer-songwriter Skylar Grey, as he suddenly revealed a recent conversation he had with his wife, Jessica Ditzel.

Usually the JRE host prefers starting the podcast on a lighter note; however, this time he had no such plans. Instead, the UFC commentator revealed that his wife wants Skylar Grey’s hit song with P. Diddy, “I’m Coming Home”, played at her funeral someday.

“This is the power of music,” he said. “I told my wife that you were coming on, and she said, ‘If I die at my funeral, I want her song, “I’m Coming Home.'”

“Really? Oh my god,” a visibly stunned Skylar Grey immediately responded.

But the JRE host wasn’t done just yet. He confessed that the thought stayed with him afterward, especially after listening to one of Grey’s stripped-down piano versions of the song while working out at the gym. That experience made Joe Rogan sit and ponder over the power of music and the idea of losing his wife someday, who has been by his side since 2009.

“Then I listened to it in the gym,” a teary-eyed Joe Rogan said. “I was like, God damn. I listened to the version where you were on the piano; it was like a solo concert.

And I was like, ‘God’. That’s such a, it’s such a great song,’ but it’s such a crazy thought that someone would want. A very specific song.”

Trying to lighten up the mood, the singer laughed awkwardly and said that it was quite a heavy way to start the podcast; nobody could stop the conversation from evolving into a bigger discussion about music, emotion, and artificial intelligence.

Joe Rogan brought up previous text messages between the two, in which Skylar Grey stated that AI cannot imitate genuine emotional songwriting since real music comes from human experiences and vulnerability.

“I don’t think it’s capable of writing stuff with this much emotion yet,” she said.

And well, the JRE host completely agreed with that viewpoint.

“Well, it’s not real, you know?” Rogan continued. “It sounds cool. That’s what AI does. There’s cool songs that come from AI, but there’s always gonna be, and I completely agree with you, there’s always gonna be a thing: we know a person wrote it, that they sat down and they wrote it, and there’s this connection with their spirit and their creativity that comes out.

“And that’s what people love about music, other than stuff that sounds. I like AI music because it sounds cool, but I know what it is. I know it’s just a robot.”

Ironically, the song at the heart of the emotional exchange now has its own complicated legacy. After its release in 2010, “Coming Home” became one of Diddy’s biggest crossover singles, and it was written by Skylar Grey, J. Cole, Jay-Z, and producer Alex da Kid.

Originally meant for T.I. during his prison release period, the single was taken by Diddy and became one of the defining emotional hip-hop songs of the early 2010s.

Years later, however, the song has resurfaced in a very different setting, since Diddy is currently serving a federal jail sentence following a major criminal trial in the United States.

Still, Joe Rogan’s reaction showed that for many listeners, the emotional content of the song has fully outweighed the controversy surrounding the artist associated with it. It is also worth noting that this wasn’t the first time this week that the JRE host has touched a topic this heavy.

Interestingly, apart from the heartbreaking request made by his wife, there’s another person in Joe Rogan’s life that he feared losing. And it’s none other than Theo Von. However, his recent words on the comedian and his mental health backfired in such a way that the JRE host has now delivered a public apology.

Joe Rogan apologises to Theo Von for recent admission on the comedian’s mental health

Just days before getting emotional over the song request from his wife, the long-time UFC commentator found himself publicly apologising to one of his closest friends, Theo Von, after comments about the comedian’s mental health sparked some severe backlash online.

The controversy began when Joe Rogan talked about Von’s antidepressant use and emotional struggles with musician Marcus King on The Joe Rogan Experience. While detailing a difficult point in Von’s life, Rogan brought up an unreleased Netflix comedy special taping in which the comic reportedly told the crowd he was “trying not to take my own life.”

The clips quickly went viral online, and many viewers accused the UFC commentator of disclosing extremely personal information to the public without Theo Von’s permission. The comedian himself later pushed back publicly.

“This is mostly cap,” he wrote on X. “Sad to see this kinda stuff. I’m doing great.”

And honestly, that response seemed to genuinely bother Joe Rogan. Later on his podcast, the JRE host stated that he handled the situation poorly and personally called Von to apologise.

“I called him up and I said, ‘I’m so sorry; I didn’t even think of that,'” he said on his podcast. “And that’s very selfish of me. I didn’t think that you would have to respond. I didn’t even think of it.

“But Theo is one of my favourite people. He’s a very unusual and very amazing person. The last thing I’d ever want to do is hurt that guy. And the last thing I’d ever want to do is say something that would have people think about him in a negative way, which I’m sure I did. And this is one of the reasons why I wanted to make this video. And I wanted to apologise.”

Joe Rogan also admitted that he underestimated how destructive short podcast clips can be when taken out of context online, particularly when discussing delicate topics like mental health. And now that the Theo Von situation now seems settled, the UFC commentator would be hoping that his recent moment of vulnerability featuring his wife’s request won’t be taken out of context as well.