Vocals

As a vocalist, Rollins has adopted a number of styles through the years. Rollins was initially noted in the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene for what journalist Michael Azerrad described as a "compelling, raspy howl". With State of Alert, Rollins "spat out the lyrics like a bellicose auctioneer". He adopted a similar style after joining Black Flag in 1981. By their album Damaged however, Black Flag began to incorporate a swing beat into their style; Rollins then abandoned his S.O.A. "bark" and adopted the band's swing. Rollins later explained: "What I was doing kind of matched the vibe of the music. The music was intense and, well, I was as intense as you needed."

In both incarnations of the Rollins Band, Rollins combined spoken word with his traditional vocal style in songs such as "Liar" (the song begins with a one minute spoken diatribe by Rollins), as well as barking his way through songs (such as "Tearing" and "Starve") and employing the loud-quiet dynamic. Rolling Stone's Anthony DeCurtis names Rollins a "screeching hate machine" and his "hallmark" as "the sheets-of-sound assault".

Rollins appeared on the 1996 studio album Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel Present Highball with the Devil, narrating "Delicate Tendrils".Rollins also appeared in the 1993 Tool album, Undertow. He and Tool front man, Maynard James Keenan, performed the vocals in the song "Bottom". He also appears on Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi solo record Iommi.

Songwriting

Rollins wrote several songs with Black Flag, but was not the group's main songwriter. With the Rollins Band, his lyrics focused "almost exclusively on issues relating to personal integrity," according to critic Geoffrey Welchman.

Music producer

Rollins is credited as mixer and producer on the 1995 album by Australian band Mark of Cain titled "Ill at Ease".

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.

Rollins has become an outspoken human rights activist, most vocally for gay rights, while deriding any suggestion that he himself is gay. On his 1998 spoken word album Think Tank the straight ally declared: "If I was gay, there would be no closet. You would never see the closet I came out of. Why? Because I'd have burned it for kindling by the time I was twelve... If I was gay, at this stage of the game...age 37, aging alternative icon...I'd be taking out ads." Rollins frequently speaks out on social justice on his spoken word tours and promotes equality, regardless of sexuality. He was the host of the WedRock benefit concert, which raised money for a pro-gay-marriage organization.

Commenting on his support for gay marriage, he stated in a 1998 interview with NY Rock "I don't want a wife and I don't want kids. 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." However, in a Sunday Times article from January 2010, he admitted that he was seeing Liza Richardson of KCRW Radio, Los Angeles.

During the 2003 Iraq War, he started touring with the United Service Organizations to entertain troops overseas while remaining against the war, leading him to once cause a stir at a base in Kyrgyzstan when he told the crowd: "Your commander would never lie to you. That's the vice president's job." Rollins believes it is important that he performs to the troops so that they have multiple points of contact with the rest of the world, stating that, "they can get really cut loose from planet earth". He has also been active in the campaign to free the "West Memphis Three"...three young men believed by their supporters to have been wrongfully convicted of murder. Rollins appears with Public Enemy frontman Chuck D on the Black Flag song "Rise Above" on the benefit album 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three; the first time Rollins had performed Black Flag's material since 1986.

Continuing his activism on behalf of troops and veterans, Rollins joined Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) in 2008 to launch a groundbreaking national public service advertisement campaign, CommunityofVeterans.org, which helps veterans coming home from war reintegrate into their communities. In April 2009, Rollins helped IAVA launch the second phase of the campaign which engages the friends and family of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at SupportYourVet.org.

On December 3, 2009, Rollins wrote of his support for the victims of the Bhopal disaster in India, in an article for Vanity Fair 25 years — to the day — after the methyl isocyanate gas leak from the Union Carbide Corporation's pesticide factory exposed more than half a million local people to poisonous gas. He spent time in Bhopal with the people, to listen to their stories. In a later radio interview in February 2010 Rollins summed-up his approach to activisim, "This is where my anger takes me, to places like this, not into abuse but into proactive, clean movement".

Studio albums

• Hot Animal Machine (1987)
• Drive by Shooting (1987)

Featured on

Spoken word

• Short Walk On A Long Pier (1985)
• Big Ugly Mouth (1987)
• Sweatbox (1989)

• Live @ McCabe's (1990)
• Human Butt (1992)
• The Boxed Life (1993)
• Think Tank (1998)
• Eric the Pilot (1999)

• A Rollins In the Wry (2001)
• Live At the Westbeth Theater (2001)
• Volume 1 (2003)
• Volume 2 (2003)
• Volume 3 (2004)
• Volume 4 (2004)
• Provoked (2008)

• 11-03-08 Alexandria VA (2010)

Spoken word videos

• Talking From the Box (1993)
• Henry Rollins Goes To London (1995)
• You Saw Me Up There (1998)
• Up for It (2001)
• Live At Luna Park (2004)
• Shock & Awe: The Tour (2005)
• Uncut from NYC (2007)
• San Francisco 1990 (2007)
• Live In the Conversation Pit (2008)

Audio Books

• On the Road with Black Flag (1994)
• Everything (1996)
• Black Coffee Blues (1997)
• Nights Behind the Tree Line (2004)

Essays

• Iron and the Soul First published in Details magazine, 1994.