Anger is an energy

>> From punk to pundit, Henry Rollins
is a loudmouth for life

PISSED OFF, CIVICALLY: Rollins

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Henry Rollins easily fits the bill of alternative icon, having provided the vitriolic screams behind trailblazing punk act Black Flag and his own Rollins Band, yet he’s hardly resting on his laurels. Once described as a fundamentalist without a mosque, this muscle-bound Renaissance man has a lot of plates spinning over his salt and pepper noggin, and barely finds time to brush his teeth. He currently has no plans to return to a band, but he continues to host a weekly, two-hour, online radio show called Harmony in My Head, as well IFC’s Henry Rollins Show, which, for my sawbucks at least, is probably the best program on TV.

He’s also the author of more books than this space will allow me to list, and heads a long-standing publishing company, 2.13.61, which releases CDs, DVDs and books by the likes of Nick Cave and Bill Shields.

To top it off, Rollins is constantly on tour with his spoken word shows, and his latest—Provoked: An Evening of Quintessentially American Opinionated Editorializing and Storytelling—comes to Montreal this weekend. The Mirror contacted Rollins at a tour stop in Houston, and talking to him is like getting an espresso shot administered directly to your main vein—his energy is completely infectious.

Mirror: Has your workaholic schedule been detrimental to living a normal life?

Henry Rollins: Absolutely, and this may sound completely lame, but I’m really not all that happy to be here, so I like to give life a run for its money. I’m not really what you would describe as a truly happy guy, and the way I get through life is to be vigorously busy and distracted because most everything to me is pointless. My lifestyle just allows me to have some purpose. I wouldn’t have to do anything for the rest of my life if I didn’t want to. I ignore the money I make and live fathoms below my means because I come from the minimum-wage world and have never left that mindset.

M: What do you think fostered this lifestyle?

HR: Basically I’m just angry (laughs) and that’s just what really gets me going. It’s not like I’m angry with you or that I walk around kicking dogs and abusing old people. Anger is awareness, and can be a really positive motivator.

M: Will there ever come a time when your blood will cease to boil?

HR: I hope I never lose my anger. If American contentment strips me of my urge to act civically, then really, what good am I?

Out of the darkness

M: What are some of the things you’re most angry about now?

HR: In my country, there are a few who are getting away with a lot from the disenfranchisement of many. The ultimate triumph of the Bush administration and the neo-conservative movement is they get people to donate their bodies, and to vote for them and further their policies, which only make them richer. And of course the media won’t stand up to the administration. I think the older I get, the more civically my anger is channelled.

But I also travel a lot, and when I see how a lot of the world operates day to day, and see what passes as normalcy in a lot of the world versus how we have it the West, that’s going to get me angry too.

M: I understand you were in Cape Town, South Africa last week. What did you see there?

HR: Well, AIDS and HIV is a thing you can see and it’s right in front of you. In my semi-informed opinion, I think South Africa is making great strides to distance themselves from Apartheid and are working for a new tomorrow. Where I saw a lot of depravity, I also saw a lot of hope and a lot of proactive care. I went to an AIDS clinic and met a really amazing doctor named Ashraf Grimwood, who is a director for the Ark Foundation. Dr. Grimwood and his three nurses get 200 patients a day and people just patiently wait for treatment. I asked my tour guide what would be the way out of this pandemic and he just repeated “education” over and over. He took me to a school where they drag as many of those kids in every week as they can. It’s amazing watching all of these people moving out of the darkness. I’m looking forward to getting back there.

Throwing back

M: Your TV show, The Henry Rollins Show, really struck me because you didn’t take the typical lily-livered leftist approach, but really came out swinging.

HR: Obviously, somebody from the other side has to punch back. Guys like Sean Hannity never get tested. I went to school with a lot of guys like that, who would talk and talk, but when you punched them in the mouth, you realized that was an area they had never been in. I’m not saying I’m some tough guy, or an expert on whatever, but Rush Limbaugh and their ilk beat up on intellectuals, and people that are maybe not adequately suited to throw back. Look at all the scientists that are being dragged over the coals for stating global warming is a fact while people who stump for Exxon Mobil accuse them of being anti-American and get away with it. I think a lot of people are starting to see that there is nothing to lose and nothing to fear by just telling the truth. It’s obvious the occupation of Iraq is an unsustainable, bloody, awful conflict, which has no real purpose other than a handful of corporations that want to dominate the world and dominate cultures. There are of course going to be people who stand up and say, “No, not in my name.”

Sexy fodder

M: What I really like about the show is you are very conversational in your interviews, yet by the end there is a lot of information there.

HR: I guess it’s conversational, but I am steering it. I know where I’m going and I am actually trying to extract information. When somebody says “conducting” an interview, that is exactly what you are trying to do. I had Samuel L. Jackson on, and he’s a great actor, but we already know that, so why would I ask him about that? I found out he was an usher at Martin Luther King’s funeral and was targeted by Hoover’s co-intel surveillance, so I asked him about that. To me, that’s a hell of an interview and I try and get off the topics that most people cover and actually engage an interview subject instead of just asking someone like Samuel about Pulp Fiction for the billionth time.

M: We are seeing a sweeping dumbing-down of the mainstream media, with entertainment news now getting prominent coverage in what were previously legitimate news sources, the Britney debacle being a prime example.

HR: If you put on the sexy fodder of a girl at her worst, someone who may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but who had the world looking up her skirt for years, people are going to tune in. She’s not unique—there are a lot of young mothers who can’t handle their children, and why that is not the issue is just too bad. There is lot of money to be made off discontent, misery and disaster.

At le National on Sunday,
March 2, 7 p.m., $30