The Ex-Black Flag Frontman Talks About Life, Music… and Coffee

By GREGG KIRK
August 1992, Big Shout Magazine

Call him the hardest-working white man in show business, call him the Iron Man of Rock, or call him simply by his last name — Rollins — as supposedly even his close friends do. Whatever the case, don’t call him lazy, and if you are not quite on a last-name basis with the dude, don’t call him a “coffee achiever,” as this interviewer had the poor judgement of doing (even though he allegedly drinks huge mugfuls of the stuff daily).

Ever since he jumped onstage and grabbed the mic at a Black Flag concert in the summer of 1981, Henry Rollins has been a very busy man. After the brief impromptu experience with the group in New York, Black Flag invited Rollins to be their frontman, and he was for the next seven years. When the tours of the U.S. and Canada came to an end, Rollins wasted no time in embarking on a career in spoken-word performances, touring Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. for three years (which he still does in between band dates).

His crowning achievement, however, has come recently with the critical and somewhat belated public acclaim over his own band’s CD release The End of Silence — a 10-song disc jammed with “74 minutes of train-wrecking jams,” according to the group’s frontman.

He’s outspoken about the fact that he was sexually abused as a child; he’s more vocal about his contempt for law enforcement officials than even Ice-T, and he’s been through some tough times, including a mugging at gunpoint last year that resulted in the death of one of his best friends. Yes, there’s a lot for him to be angry about, but when Rollins comes to the Trocadero in Philadelphia on Aug. 18, he will come to do business. Because, in his own words, “it doesn’t matter where you put us on the bill, or who you put us on the bill with — the result is always the same. When we do work, you get destroyed. That’s just the way it is.”

We spoke with him last month in a phone interview, while the Rollins Band was on the southern leg of its U.S. tour.

Big Shout: You witnessed a good friend of yours getting shot last year as you and he were walking to your home in Venice Beach, CA. Has this experience directly affected your songwriting or spoken-word presentations?

Henry Rollins: Well, I’ve talked about it in spoken-word shows, and I’m sure some songs kind of dealing with it in different was will be coming out.

BS: You’re writing some new stuff?

HR: Always, yeah.

BS: There’s a big buzz going on now about the Lollapalooza II tour on MTV and in the entertainment press. The Rollins Band was on the original Lollapalooza bill. How was it for you guys?

HR: Fine.

BS: How did you get involved?

HR: Ah, we were on tour with Jane’s Addiction, and Perry (Farrell) asked us if we wanted to be on this Lollapalooza tour he was cookin’ up, and we said, “Yeah.”

BS: Was it a positive thing overall?

HR: Oh yeah, definitely.

BS: Was there much mingling between bands on the tour?

HR: Yeah, sure. Everyone was jammin’ with each other by the end of the tour. I sang with Body Count. Us and the Butthole Surfers made up a song together and played it onstage with all of us onstage at once. Vernon Reid (Living Colour) played with us. Eric (Avery) from Jane’s Addiction played with us. Sim (Cain), our drummer, played with Jane’s Addiction. I think Chris (Haskett), our guitar player, played with Siouxsie & the Banshees. It all got kind of mixed up.

BS: What’s your opinion of the Lollapalooza II tour?

HR: I don’t have an opinion on it. It’s just another tour going out. It should be interesting.

BS: Do you think there’s the same kind of spirit involved?

HR: I don’t know; I’m not on it.

BS: What bands are you into these days?

HR: I really like the Beastie Boys. I think those guys are just… great.

BS: Anybody else?

HR: Ah, not that I can think of. Not that I’m not into anybody else; there’s nothing I can think of that really stands out.

BS: You played in Philly last year at the Khyber Pass. Do you remember that?

HR: Yeah, of course.

BS: How did it go?

HR: Fine.

BS: It seems like there’s a lot more hype involved with the band this time. Is your label (Imago) pushing you more? It seems like a whole different thing this year.

HR: Well, they’ve been pushing us ever since we had a record.

BS: But the public response has been more…

HR: Everything is way up. There’s more people at shows. We’ve sold more records of the new one than all the other records we’ve ever done.

BS: What do you think the reason is?

HR: Well, a combination of things. You know, it’s a good record. Lollapalooza last year helped us. Being on a major label is a big help. Our record is easy to find. It’s not like, you know, some obscure record.

BS: What can people expect to see of your show at the Trocadero on Aug. 18?

HR: We’ll go in and play a bunch of songs and leave.

BS: If you were running for president, what would your political platform be?

HR: To shoot a pig in the face.

BS: Anything else?

HR: No, I think that’d probably clear things up pretty well. Education and dead cops I think would be pretty righteous.

BS: A lot has been made about you being dubbed as “rock’s last angry young man,” but wouldn’t it be closer to the truth to say that you are rock’s last angry young coffee achiever?

HR: (grumbles) Ah, I don’t know.

BS: I read that you drink a lot of coffee…

HR: Yeah, I drink coffee. I haven’t had any coffee for three days though.

BS: What’s your favorite kind?

HR: (begrudgingly) Dark Italian Roast.

BS: How much can you bench press?

HR: About 225-230 lbs., three reps.

BS: Are you still working out?

HR: Yea, I stretch and do stuff before I play each night, but I usually hit the gym six days a week if I can.

BS: What are your Top 5 favorite movies?

HR: Let’s see, ah, “Apocalypse Now,” “Taxi Driver,” “Caddy Shack,” “Seven Samurai,” and uh, hmmmmm, that’s a good question… maybe “Wings of Desire.”

BS: At last count, how many tattoos do you have?

HR: I don’t count ’em.

BS: What’s your favorite one?

HR: I don’t have a favorite.

BS: What’s the last one you got?

HR: Ah, I guess it was the snake on my leg.

BS: When did you get it?

HR: I don’t know.

BS: You don’t remember what was going on at the time?

HR: No. I’ve been so busy in the last two years; I don’t remember 1989 much.

HS: What are you doing today?

HR: I’m doing another interview, a photo shoot, and hopefully trying to squeeze a workout in before soundcheck, and then I have to have a meeting with our dear record company president who’s flying down to talk to me.

BS: What about?

HR: Censorship (chuckles).

BS: What does he need to talk to you about? There’s no profanity on your album…

HR: No, no, no, it’s a spoken-word video I just did, where I talk a lot about killing policemen. Apparently, BMG has some problems with it, and he wants to come down, and I guess try and convince me to remove that section from the video.

BS: So what do you think’s going to happen?

HR: I think I’m gonna say no, and I think he’s gonna bum out.

BS: What’s your average day like?

HR: On tour, I wake up usually in some parking lot somewhere on the bus. Usually, there’s interviews in the morning. Hopefully, a gym is waiting for me, and I get in a good workout, and go right into soundcheck. Do the soundcheck, try and get a little bit of food, and get a small nap just try and recover from the workout. Stretch and get ready to play.