 Henry
Rollins
Titan of the Tongue
an Emily Blunt Interview
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Rollins Stuff
Musician-cum-spoken-word-artist
Henry Rollins can be intimidating. His muscleman’s physique
is plastered in tats. His brow appears to be stuck in a perpetual
mixture of frown and confusion while each hair on his head stands
at attention in a buzz cut. His fierce appearance matches his
opinions, which can be as subtle as a paper cut.
Yet
his soft-spoken and articulate voice betrays everything you think
you know about Rollins. The interview is early for an entertainer.
But even in the pre-coffee hour of our talk, Rollins’ mind
is running error-free through various multi-level interwoven conversations.
Seven syllable words flow without pomp.
Henry
“Hank” Rollins may be best known as the kick-ass mega-kinetic
front man of legendary punk band Black Flag. But since those days
he’s gone on to become a topical spoken-word artist.
Toss
any image of Rollins in paisley and beret, sipping a grande latte
from bone china — pinky up — out of your mind. He’s
a fierce poet of the monologue.
This self-appointed poster child for censorship-free living could
care less about his perceived image. He is always doing a tour
- somewhere. Check his site (listed below) for dates and places...
And
without pomp Hank said the shows always sell out, and he believes
he understands the draw. “I go into that dangerous territory
of being self-congratulatory. And I go places with a no-BS, unvarnished
take on things.” Understating his appeal he added, “I’m
kinda blunt.”
The statement makes me laugh because Rollins is built both physically
and mentally like a Sherman Tank. His biceps are hours-in-the-gym
big and his mind a precision instrument aimed for impact.
As such, a Henry Rollins spoken-word show’s aftermath permeates
a listener’s subconscious. It’s a combination of unusual
candor and a punch of reality that wallops like a Philly-based
southpaw.
Rollins
said he’s worked hard at perfecting his monologue delivery.
He has managed to infuse his controversial and visceral opinions
with a thin line of humor, even when the subject matter is far
from Comedy Central-lite.
“When
people get a point across to me, and it’s infused with humor,
it’s like the spoon full of sugar that makes the napalm
go down,” Rollins explained. “I talk about some pretty
heavy things because I see some pretty heavy things. I can’t
go to [the army medical hospital] Walter Reed and see kids with
their faces blown off and not tell you about it.
“And,
obviously, that’s not something that’s humorous, so
you have to get it across in such a way that people don’t
shut down and rope-a-dope. There has to be a way to get that across.
Because otherwise you’re not having any impact.
“Rather
than some guy booming stentorian from the mount — no matter
what his take is — people are going to be like, ‘Oh
come on! Please…’’
He
added that he felt someone who can use humor to get a point across
makes you realize they are working at a higher level. They use
humor to open you up to hearing what they say.
Rollins
is an animated intellectual original. “If I have an opinion,
I am informing it with some very hard information. I’m not
just throwing stuff out.”
Mimicking
a drunken frat boy, Rollins accents his point. “‘Bush
is a moron, man!’ That’s not going to come out of
my mouth. I might say, ‘Bush is intellectually incurious,’
though. Then even his biggest fans go, ‘Well, yeah, yeah…
we know.’
“But
stupid? No. He’s a great politician. I just don’t
think he cares that much about the stuff he’s talking about.
And I think you’d find a lot of Republicans that agree.”
Rollins
pooh-poohed his talents as unique, though. He said his technique
“is something any communicator or performer on stage would
take into heavy consideration.”
Beneath
the intellectual bad-boy façade is a savvy entrepreneur.
Rollins is a Swiss Army knife of entertainment mediums. He owns
a publishing company, a recording label, tours with his self-titled
band almost yearly, maintains a weekly L.A.-based radio show,
hosts a weekly uncensored talk show on IFC and is an accomplished
short-story author.
His brain seems to glow brightly with a non-stop humming of electrochemical
impulses. Even with all of his capitalistic ventures, Rollins
has managed to do a full-length tour in one way or another since
1981, dedicated to releasing his brand of verbal activism.Rollins
is an obvious Type-A personality — sans the ass part usually
associated to those Energizer bunny sorts. “There are certain
personalities that just like this. And I love it. I like it up
there. It’s a place I know.” As if checking himself,
he adds, “Hopefully as I am getting older there’s
more in the hood. You can bring more to the stage and more into
an idea.”
Rollins’
rapid-fire pointing-out-the-obvious delivery is much cleverer
than the armchair politicians who spew opinions about like last
year’s Halloween Skittles.
And
his theories on communication don’t mean he’s dumbing
down his act for anyone. Audience members will need to take a
refresher course on world geography pre-show.
His
opinions are so informed that even people who fundamentally disagree
with him send passive-aggressive hate mail. He said they will
say things like, “‘Some of the stuff you say it’s
not how I am voting. But I respect you and you’re a good
guy.’ I like that.”
On
his last state-side tour, Rollins talked about his recent travels
to Iran, Jordan, Israel, Syria and Lebanon. The monologue included
far-off lands and long, difficult names of leaders that have to
be phonetically spelled out for evening news anchors.
“You
can’t walk around through Damascus without seeing Bashar
al-Asad’s smiling face every 10 feet and not come out of
that without an opinion.”
Wandering
through the alcoves, he was once again struck with how similar
young people everywhere he goes are. “The 20-somethings
were all hanging out with their electronics at the pizza shop,
dressed in the latest, trying to look cool. They were all receptive
of me, and actually positive about America, but they all had something
to say about our boy Bush.”
His
friends insist he is crazy for traveling where he does. Ironically,
he met no ill-meaning anyones until he returned home. Hank was
asked to “step down the hall” and was grilled by three
U.S. Customs guards.
“They
wanted to know what I went there for. They were like ‘You
shouldn’t go there.’ I said, ‘Oh, OK dad. Bite
me. How long is this going to take? Do this or turn me loose.
I have a flight to catch.’”
At
which point they said he could go. Rollins’ voice echoed
the lasting annoyance as he continued, “They were cool with
it once they noticed I was giddy with anticipation at what they’d
ask next. I told them, ‘I have been flying for 25 hours…
I need something to keep me awake. Don’t get all wussy on
me now!’”
And
don’t get him started about next year’s elections.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be a fair election.
Because of the Diebold machines I don’t think there’s
been a fair presidential election in a long time. If it’s
got stank on it? I bet I know which side it favors.
“If
you saw that documentary on HBO, ‘Hacking Into Democracy,’
you know it can be done with no traceable record. I was almost
in tears watching that. I thought, ‘Well, there goes my
democracy!’
“We
can lose those things we have in America to bullshit. That is
of great concern to me because I want a fair fight. I want the
right man or woman to win. And not because one was sneakier.”
Rollins
is pro-personal activism. “The last six years of Bush has
made me very active. The president doesn’t care about the
pigsty on my corner. But neither does my mayor or my senator or
my governor. And if I don’t care it’s not going to
change. When you start seeing yourself as the vehicle of change,
then we get it going.”
He
said he can have a healthy disagreement with a Republican or conservative
about taxation or health care. “I can see where they are
coming from. I don’t agree, but I got it. We can walk away
‘OK, agree to disagree. Let’s eat.’
“On the other hand, if someone tells me Bush is a visionary
and the war in Iraq is gonna save us all and all of that, we’re
gonna fight in a minute.”
Rollins’
26-plus years of playing the punk whirling dervish of political
oration has been lucrative. And he believes in micro-managing
where his government falls short. Literally putting his wallet
where his mouth is, Rollins contributes a “great deal of
money” to a local Los Angeles orphanage.
He
doesn’t do it for the E! News bragging rights. It is something
he can see makes an immediate difference. “I know what it’s
going for; the kids are getting three squares and a coloring book
or whatever.”
The
Southern Poverty Law Center receives a check from Hank bi-yearly,
too. “It’s just what you do.” He feels all Americans
are very generous people and “that has been stepped upon
recently.”
“These
are your countrymen,” he said, changing the focus from himself.
“You’ll see people who are living right on the poverty
line sending out two rumpled twenties to the people in Louisiana
because they look at that and say, ‘Man if that were me,
I would be really hoping someone would give a damn.’”
With
our time up, he seems to take his first breath since we started.
He
admitted he is amazed by the opportunities and longevity he’s
had. “The people I ran with in ’80 or ’81 are
either no longer doing it or no longer with us. Not doing drugs
helped.
“I
am so glad I don’t have that Britney Spears celebrity thing
where you’re gonna be out there in three years saying, ‘Man
remember back when I…’ You know? When that place doesn’t
buy you a beer anymore? Or worse, shouping it on VH1.”
There
are still plenty of rounds of beers in his future. Rollins is
an ever-changing landscape of ideas and he is content with the
seasons of his popularity.
“I’d
rather be small of fame. The farthest I’ve ever fallen is
from my curb-high precipice; my little tiny perch of ebbs and
flows. When, and if, people stop saying ‘yah!’ Then
I’ll have to go get a real job.”
Henry
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