Henry Rollins

[October 8th, 2008]

Henry Rollins doesn’t seem to sleep.

While most of us talk about our great ideas and things we’re going to do, Rollins has written 11 books of journal entries, poetry and sleep-deprived reverie about life on the road, crushing loneliness and his waking dreams that slip easily from hot to horrifying.

The legendary brute of a frontman from Black Flag also recently released three volumes of liner notes to songs from his radio show on L.A.’s indie 103.1 FM.  He has released seven performance DVDs and one from his own talk show, The Henry Rollins Show, which airs on the Independent Film Channel. And though Rollins’ tour schedule is brutal, he finds time to blog, vlog and write articles, as well as answer just about every piece of fan email. At 47, Rollins may no longer get mauled and gobbed on at his performances. But he’s still fighting the man with the screaming rage of when he was 20 and brawling in crappy clubs around the world. His latest show—coming to Portland on Monday, Oct. 13—is Recountdown 2008, which celebrates the Bush administration’s impending limp out of office. Once again, Rollins’ scarred fist pumps a middle finger right at Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and W (to name just a few), and screams, “Fuck you!” with his entire aching life of nonstop work, pain and rock. Why? Because Henry Rollins cares about America. So much so, he loses sleep over it. 

WW: Who won the debate between Biden and Palin?

Henry Rollins: I don’t think people can really win those things. But I think Sarah Palin was very well-versed in the talking points she had very recently memorized. And Joe Biden was very good at showing what he’s known for many years. 

I haven’t met any undecided voters. But you’ve been on the road awhile. Have you met any?

A few, and they’ve mostly been women. I don’t know why. Sarah Palin’s snarkiness comes off as confidence, as knowledge. It’s a good veneer and may get some votes. Where Joe Biden.... Joe is Joe in a way where he comes off as kind of flat-footed. He’s the guy in the Hawaiian Punch ad. He doesn’t lower himself. But I like that. He’s a real guy. When he got choked up, that was real.

It was real. And that’s where Sarah Palin fucked herself because she had just finished saying what a mom she was, sitting at her kitchen table and blah blah blah. Biden chokes up about losing his wife and daughter. And she doesn’t spend a nano-second to offer condolences or even pretend to be a human.

Yes. But...you read books. Please realize you are on kind of the edge of the bell curve. You aren’t the Big Mac-inhaling, middle-of-the-road person. When you see that you say, “Wow. What an asshole.” A lot of Americans don’t see that. Facts don’t resonate with most Americans the way “I’m a hockey mom” does. She’s got big balls and digs herself and that works for some people. What I took from the presidential debate was that Barack Obama and John McCain are both decent men who both love America. I don’t hate John McCain. I just don’t like where he wants to take my country. He wants to drag me kicking and screaming back into the ’80s and I don’t even wanna watch it in a rerun. He’s bragging about not knowing how to use a computer and I’m like, “Pal, lose the gills and the tail, come out of the muck and join us up here.’’

When did you consciously turn your art into activism?

After seeing more stuff in the world, after seeing Africa, India, South America, places that have been really hard-hit, where you see people really struggling. Then you come back to your wonderful America and you see a guy on a treadmill trying to run the fat off his body because he eats too much. No one in Calcutta gets to have that problem. When you see what globalization looks like, it puts you in a geo-political frame of mind. 

Recently a guy essentially wrote me telling me to shut up and sing. Why is it entertainers are supposed to keep neutral?

Some of it’s jealousy. Some of it is you get paid to shut up and sing. Basically, the short version is they’re trying to marginalize you. But that guy telling you to shut up, I don’t want him to shut up, either.

Oh, absolutely. I wrote him back and said, “Isn’t it so great we both get to express our opinions here?”

I support Rush Limbaugh. I can only take about 30 seconds of him, then I gotta go. But long may he wave.

Speaking of Rush...I may be biased. But it seems to me the funniest people in the world are left-leaning and conservatives kind of suck at comedy. Why is that?

I will paraphrase Janeane Garofalo when she said, “You know what all your Republican friends have in common? They’re all kinda dicks.” They can’t be funny. They’re mean, and they should be largely ignored.

This election has got people so twisted with rage. That’s a good thing because it motivates otherwise apathetic people. But there is so much vitriol on both sides. We wanna be right so badly we’re ready to kill each other to make it so.

I think the motives on both sides are different. The outrage coming from the left is more coming from, “You guys don’t play fair! What’s up with that?” And when it comes from the right it’s like, “Shut up, faggot.” The right has such contempt for government, that’s why they cheat, because they don’t like government.

So how do we fight the bullshit punditry, the spin and intimidation without looking like the same thing only flying different colors?

You keep fighting the good fight. You keep helping your fellow countrymen. You basically keep doing what you’re doing. Look at all the young people voting now, who know a damn thing or two about politics. Look at all the young people showing up at rallies for both Obama and McCain. That’s the upshot, so I think the future is very bright. McCain’s America is going away, like a relic—like stoning or putting leeches on your face for a cold.