Logan Paul Recalls The Rock Cutting Ties With Him After Controversial Video

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Logan Paul recently recalled how his infamous Aokigahara video caused the Rock to cut ties with him. As you may recall, back in 2018 Paul became a lightning rod for criticism when he posted a video from the Japanese forest featuring the body of someone who had committed suicide there. YouTube suspended ads on his channel as a result.

In a new interview on the True Geordie podcast, Paul discussed the incident when he was asked if he had ever been let down by one of his heroes and answered, "The Rock." You can check out some highlights below from the discussion, per Fightful:

Logan Paul on his relationship with Rock before the video: "I've never told this story. I'll give you some alpha. I love Dwayne The Rock Johnson. He's the best. So likable, works hard, motivational, his energy is contagious. He's always on jets. In a weird way, there's no blueprint to the s**t that I'm doing, but in a weird way, he made a blueprint for a career path that did not exist yet. In the same way, I kind of want to do something like that, it'll look vastly different, but in parallel, I believe I'll build a multi-faceted career in the same way Dwayne The Rock Johnson has. We made a couple of videos together, me and Dwayne, back in the day when I was making Instagram Vine sketches. Great guy in real life. I was scared to meet him because I was like, 'Is he going to be one of those people who I meet and I fall out of love with my idea of him?' No, sweetheart. Gave me the time of day, having a nice conversation, it was awesome. Made three or four videos on separate occasions that all went crazy viral. I would consider him, maybe not a friend, but definitely an acquaintance. Very friendly with each other."

Logan Paul on Rock's reaction to the Aokigahara video: "This was one of the saddest moments of my life, what I'm about to say. After Japan happened, obviously, found myself in a hole, rightfully so, that I had never been in before. Extremely low, mentally, and I got a call from my publicist who also repped Dwayne and she's like, 'Dwayne has asked that you remove every picture and video that you've done with him. Maybe in the future the relationship can be reconciled, but for now, he basically wants nothing to do with you.' I also understood, I get it. I made a grotesque error and he has had things in his life that a lot of people, that incident, affected him in a personal way.

"I understood it and that was the other part. I was like, 'f**k.' You sleep in the bed you make, right? I just wish I would have gotten a call or text. Something because I thought we had a healthy relationship, an open line of communication. I was so sad that my hero wanted nothing to do with me. I was sad because I understood it. I really f**ked up. I totally got where he was coming from. I was so disappointed in myself. Real disappointed in myself. I vowed to get better and vowed to change. Time passed, I start doing well. I just want to be able to build a relationship with Dwayne that didn't end up happening."

On not having any ill will toward Rock: "I think I'm a scumbag for outing this story, publicly. He's not (a bad person). He's f**king awesome. Dwayne The Rock Johnson is awesome. I love him. He's busy. He doesn't owe me s**t. I want to be clear, but damn I'd be lying...it hurt. I've wanted to have a conversation with him about it, but I don't know what to say. I'm still stuck on the cold turkey. I'm still stuck on, 'Hey bro, hey kid, I know we were cool, I don't want f**king anything to do with you. Delete everything I'm in connected to you.' I'm still stuck on that. Four years later when it's, 'Hey dude, always been supporting you from afar.' Keyword, afar. I don't know what to say. I can't forget about it. I get it, but I'm still stuck here. It hurt, and he probably didn't think twice about it. I have considered this...my publicist made all of it up. In which case, I'm a f**king asshole. They're supposed to protect him too. The only thing is, they also rep Kevin Hart, and I made videos with Kevin. He didn't have me remove the videos."