Henry Rollins (born
Henry Lawrence Garfield; February 13, 1961) is an America singer-songwriter, raconteur, stand-up comedian, spoken word artist, writer, publisher, actor, radio DJ, and activist.After joining the short-lived Washington D.C.-based band State of Alert in 1980, Rollins fronted the California hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1981 until 1986. Following the band's breakup, Rollins soon established the record label and publishing company 2.13.61 to release his spoken word albums, as well as forming the Rollins Band, which toured with a number of lineups until 2003 and during 2006.
Since Black Flag, Rollins has embarked on projects covering a variety of media. He has hosted numerous radio shows, such as
Harmony In My Head on Indie 103, and television shows, such as
The Henry Rollins Show, MTV's
120 Minutes,and
Jackass. He had a recurring dramatic role as a white supremacist in the second season of
Sons of Anarchy and has also had roles in several films. Rollins has also campaigned for various political causes in the United States, including promoting marriage equality for LGBT couples, World Hunger Relief, and an end to war in particular, and tours overseas with the United Service Organizations to entertain American troops.
Rollins has since replied that "no, the training was just basically a way to push myself."
Rollins Band and solo releases
Before Black Flag broke up in August 1986, Rollins had already toured as a solo spoken word artist. He released two solo records in 1987,
Hot Animal Machine, a collaboration with guitarist Chris Haskett, and
Drive by Shooting, recorded as "Henrietta Collins and the Wifebeating Childhaters"; Rollins also released his second spoken word album,
Big Ugly Mouth in the same year. Along with Haskett, Rollins soon added Andrew Weiss and Sim Cain, both former members of Ginn's side-project Gone, and called the new group Rollins Band. The band toured relentlessly, and their 1987 debut album,
Life Time, was quickly followed by the outtakes and live collection
Do It. The band continued to tour throughout 1988; 1989 marked the release of another Rollins Band album,
Hard Volume. Another live album,
Turned On, and another spoken word release,
Live at McCabe's, followed in 1990.
Rollins and Weiss released
Fast Food For Thought, an EP by their one-off side project Wartime in 1990. It was sonically in many ways more reminiscent of Weiss's work with Ween than the Rollins Band. The music, while heavy and driving, had a distinctly psychedelic bent, culimnating in the final track, a cover of "Franklin's Tower" by The Grateful Dead. Early pressings were simply credited to "Wartime" while later releases added the phrase "featuring Henry Rollins" to the cover.
1991 saw the Rollins Band sign a distribution deal with Imago Records and appear at the Lollapalooza festival; both improved the band's presence. However, in December 1991, Rollins and his best friend Joe Cole were accosted by gunmen belonging to the Venice, CA gang, the Venice Shoreline Crips, outside Rollins's home. Cole was murdered by a gunshot to the head, but Rollins escaped without injury. Although traumatized by Cole's death, as chronicled in his book
Now Watch Him Die, Rollins continued to release new material; the spoken-word album
Human Butt appeared in 1992 on his own record label, 2.13.61. The Rollins Band released
The End of Silence, Rollins's first charting album.
The following year, Rollins released a spoken-word double album,
The Boxed Life. The Rollins Band embarked upon the
End of Silence tour; bassist Weiss was fired towards its end and replaced by funk and jazz bassist Melvin Gibbs. According to critic Steve Huey, 1994 was Rollins's "breakout year". The Rollins Band appeared at Woodstock 94 and released
Weight, which ranked on the Billboard Top 40. Rollins released
On the Road with Black Flag, a double-disc set of him reading from his Black Flag tour diary of the same name; he won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording as a result. Rollins was named 1994's "Man of the Year" by the American men's magazine
Details and became a contributing columnist to the magazine. With the increased exposure, Rollins made several appearances on American music channels MTV and VH1 around this time, and made his Hollywood film debut in 1994 in
The Chase playing a police officer.
In 1995, the Rollins Band's record label, Imago Records, declared itself bankrupt. Rollins began focusing on his spoken word career. He released
Everything, a recording of a chapter of his book
Eye Scream with free jazz backing, in 1996. He continued to appear in various films, including
Heat,
Johnny Mnemonic and
Lost Highway. The Rollins Band signed to Dreamworks Records in 1997 and soon released
Come in and Burn, but it did not receive as much critical acclaim as their previous material. Rollins continued to release spoken-word book readings, releasing
Black Coffee Blues in the same year. 1998 saw Rollins released
Think Tank, his first set of non-book-related spoken material in five years.
By 1998, Rollins felt that the relationship with his backing band had run its course, and the line-up disbanded. He had produced a Los Angeles hard rock band called Mother Superior, and invited them to form a new incarnation of the Rollins Band. Their first album
Get Some Go Again, was released two years later. The Rollins Band released several more albums, including 2001's
Nice and 2003's
24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three. After 2003, the band became inactive as Rollins focused on radio and television work. During a 2006 appearance on
Tom Green Live!, Rollins stated that he "may never do music again".
"As long as I tell the truth I feel that nobody can touch me.""Being an artist is dragging your innermost feelings out, giving a piece of yourself, no matter in which art form, in which medium.""Don't do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your ass off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts.""Giving a good performance, giving it all is what it's all about. I love to perform.""Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated.""I am an optimist because I want to change things for the better and I know that blood has to be spilled and disharmony and cruelty are necessary to do that.""I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone.""I can deal with people who watch me on stage but I am not good in communicating with people any other way than through my work.""I can only write about personal stuff, about my point of view.""I can't remember that I ever had just a minute of stage fright.""I don't believe in fate or destiny. I believe in various degrees of hatred, paranoia, and abandonment. However much of that gets heaped upon you doesn't matter - it's only a matter of how much you can take and what it does to you.""I don't mean to be arrogant and I really appreciate my fans but talking about what I am doing is not something I'm good at. I do what I do and that's it. I want to get back to my work and do more of it instead of talking about it.""I don't mind The Boss. I think he's an honest guy. I have some of his records, not all of them. I've met a couple of the E-Street guys, and they seem really cool.""I forged myself out of a vacuum. I crawl along the highway on hacked off stumps year after year. Some wonder how and why. I never do.""I just get things done instead of talking about getting them done. I don't go out and party. I don't smoke, drink or do drugs and I'm not married, that leaves a lot of time for my work.""I love to go on stage and sing.""I mean I appreciate fan mail and that the people like what I am doing but I can't answer it. If I would answer 25 letters a day I would be just a guy answering mail and not an artist anymore.""I need to do things on my own, need to be left alone.""I think about the meaning of pain. Pain is personal. It really belongs to the one feeling it. Probably the only thing that is your own. I like mine.""I'm 36 and if I met a woman of my own age and married her, I'd also be marrying her former life, her past. It might be OK for some people - I don't want to judge it or anything - but it's not for me. It would destroy my creativity.""I'm most in my element on tour, with a gig that day, like today. I'm on the road where I am supposed to be. I will be where I'm supposed to be at nighttime, on stage, in front of people, doing my thing.""I've always seen it as the role of an artist to drag his inside out, give the audience all you've got. Writers, actors, singers, all good artists do the same. It isn't supposed to be easy.""In the summer of '84, you just couldn't escape the Born in the USA record.""It is just that I don't want a wife and I don't want kids.""It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.""Keep your blood clean, your body lean, and your mind sharp.""Life will not break your heart. It'll crush it.""Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.""My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.""Nothing brings people together more, then mutual hatred.""Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.""So I'm more at home with my backpack, sleeping in a hotel room or on a bus or on an airplane, than I am necessarily on a bed. It's weird being here. It feels like I'm standing next to my real life.""So, one way or another, I found myself in a few movies. I take it seriously when I'm on the set, but I don't take myself seriously as an actor.""Sometimes the truth hurts. And sometimes it feels real good.""The blues is losing someone you love and not having enough money to immerse yourself in drink.""The only difference between me and others is that they think they can change something with cute little poems, nice cards or embracing trees and being nice to little lapdogs.""There's no such thing as an ex-junkie.""This is my 25th year of being on stage. A lot of people who I kind of toed up to the starting line with are no longer in this position. I feel very, very lucky.""To hate is to show you still care, who needs that, focus on what's really important.""Well, we run my ship differently. Any offer that comes in, I yay or nay it, no matter how insane it is. Like, if someone asks me if I'm interested in doing a porn film, the answer to that is going to be no, but it comes to me anyway. I'm responsible for making the call.""What I don't want to do is go out there and not be able to mean it, you know?""Why do you think the old stories tell of men who set out on great journeys to impress the gods? Because trying to impress people just isn't worth the time and effort.""Yes, I guess you could say I am a loner, but I feel more lonely in a crowed room with boring people than I feel on my own."
Appearances in Other Media more less
Television
As Rollins rose to prominence with the Rollins Band, he began to present and appear on cable television programs. These included
Alternative Nation and
MTV Sports in 1993 and 1994 respectively. 1995 saw Rollins appear on an episode of
Unsolved Mysteries that explored the murder of his best friend Joe Cole and present
State of the Union Undressed on
Comedy Central. Rollins began to present and narrate
VH1 Legends in 1996. Rollins, busy with the Rollins Band, did not present more programs until 2001, but made appearances on a number of other television shows, including
Welcome to Paradox in 1998 in the episode "All Our Sins Forgotten", as a therapist that develops a device that can erase the bad memories of his patients. Rollins also voiced
Mad Stan in
Batman Beyond in 1999 and 2000. He also did the voice in Apple's 1999 G4 Cube Ad with Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" playing as the theme song.
In 2001, Rollins appeared as the uncredited host of "Night Visions", a short-lived horror anthology series. Rollins was a host of film review programme
Henry's Film Corner on the
Independent Film Channel, before presenting the weekly
The Henry Rollins Show on the channel. The Henry Rollins Show is now being shown weekly on Film24 along with Henry Rollins Uncut. 2002 saw Rollins guest star on an episode of the sitcom
The Drew Carey Show as a man whom Lewis would find on eBay and pay to come to his house and kick his ass. He co-hosted the British television show
Full Metal Challenge, in which teams built vehicles to compete in various driving and racing contests, from 2002—2003 on Channel 4 and TLC. He has made a number of cameo appearances in television series such as MTV's
Jackass and an episode of
Californication, where he played himself hosting a radio show. In 2006, Rollins appeared in a documentary series by VH1 and The Sundance Channel called
The Drug Years..
Rollins appears in FX's
Sons of Anarchy's second season, that premiered fall 2009 in the United States. Rollins plays A.J. Weston, a white-supremacist gang leader and new antagonist in the show's fictional town of Charming, California, who poses a deadly threat to the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club. His character was shot and killed at the end of the second season.
Rollins was a voice actor in the animated
Return of the Joker and voiced Robotman in two episode of
The Brave and the Bold.
Rollins was a guest judge on the second season of
RuPaul's Drag Race, which aired on Logo on March 8, 2010.Henry is featured at the beginning of "The Cornholes" public access show of Santa Cruz Community Cable in Santa Cruz,CA. espousing the virtues of the Improv Troupe and quoting Akira Kurosawa.
He has narrated episodes of UFC Primetime.
Radio
On May 19, 2004, Rollins began hosting a weekly radio show,
Harmony in My Head on Los Angeles' Indie 103.1 radio. The show aired every Monday evening, with Rollins playing a variety of music ranging from early rock and jump blues to hard rock, blues rock, folk rock, punk rock, metal and rockabilly, but also touching on rap, jazz, world music, reggae, classical music and more.
Harmony In My Head often emphasizes B-sides, live bootlegs and other rarities, and nearly every episode has featured a song either by the Beastie Boys or British group The Fall.
Rollins put the show on a short hiatus to undertake a spoken-word tour in early 2005. Rollins posted playlists and commentary on-line; these lists were expanded with more information and published in book form as
Fanatic! through 2.13.61 in November 2005. In late 2005, Rollins announced the show's return and began the first episode by playing the show's namesake Buzzcocks song. As of 2008, the show continues each week despite Rollins's constant touring with new pre-recorded shows between live broadcasts. In 2009 Indie 103.1 went off the air, although it continues to broadcast over the internet.
On February 18, 2009, KCRW announced that Rollins would be hosting a live show on Saturday nights starting March 7, 2009.
In 2007 Rollins published "Fanatic! Vol. 2" through 2.13.61. "Fanatic! Vol. 3" was released in the fall of 2008.
Film
Rollins began his film career appearing in several independent films featuring Black Flag. His film debut was in 1982's
The Slog Movie, about the West Coast punk scene. An appearance in 1985's
Black Flag Live followed. Rollins first film appearance without Black Flag was the short film
The Right Side of My Brain with Lydia Lunch in 1985. Following the band's breakup, Rollins did not appear in any films until 1994's
The Chase. Rollins appeared in the 2007 direct-to-DVD sequel to
Wrong Turn (2003),
Dead End as a retired Marine Corps officer who hosts his own show which tests the contestants' will to survive. Rollins has also appeared in
Punk: Attitude, a documentary on the punk scene, and in
American Hardcore (2006).
Some feature length movies Henry Rollins has appeared in include:
- Kiss Napoleon Goodbye (1990), with Lydia Lunch and Don Bajema.
- The Chase (1994), with Charlie Sheen.
- Johnny Mnemonic (1995), with Keanu Reeves, Ice T and Dolph Lundgren.
- Heat (1995), with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer.
- Lost Highway (1997), with Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette. Directed by David Lynch.
- Jack Frost (1998), with Michael Keaton.
- Morgan's Ferry (1999), with Billy Zane and Kelly McGillis.
- Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001 documentary)
- The New Guy (2002), with Tommy Lee and DJ Qualls.
- Jackass The Movie (2002) with Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera
- Jackass Number Two (2006) with Preston Lacy, Steve-O, and Chris Pontius.
- Bad Boys 2 (2003), with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
- Feast (2005), with Balthazar Getty and Navi Rawat.
- The Alibi (2006)
- Dead End (2007)
- The Devil's Tomb (2009)
- H for Hunger (2009 documentary)
- William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet (2009 documentary)
Video games
Rollins has made several voice acting performances in video games including the main character Mace Griffin in Bounty Hunter and as himself in Fight for NY.
Books
Rollins has written a series of books based on his travel journals referred to as the
Black Coffee Blues trilogy. They include the namesake book,
Black Coffee Blues,
Do I Come Here Often?,
The First Five and
Smile, You're Traveling. Others include
See a Grown Man Cry, Now Watch Him Die,
Get in the Van,
Eye Scream,
Broken Summers,
Roomanitarian, and
Solipsist.
Audiobooks
For the audiobook version of the 2006 novel
World War Z Rollins voiced the character of T. Sean Collins, a mercenary hired to protect celebrities during a mass panic caused by an onslaught of the undead. Rollins' other audiobook recordings include
3:10 to Yuma and his own autobiographical book
Get in the Van, for which he won a Grammy Award.
Blogging
In September 2008 Rollins began contributing to the "Politics & Power" blog at the online version of
Vanity Fair magazine. Since March 2009 his posts have appeared under their own sub-title,
Straight Talk Espresso. His posts consistently direct harsh criticism at conservative politicians and pundits, although he does occasionally target the left wing as well. In August 2010 he began writing a music column for the
LA Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Los Angeles.