Review: Henry Rollins Burning Down the House

Monday, 29 August 2016, 12:44 pm
Article: Howard Davis

With his lantern jaw, close-cropped hair, and muscle-bound physique, Henry Rollins could not be further from the US Marine image his appearance might suggest. With a career spanning several decades and many different incarnations as a musician, actor, writer, TV and radio host, comedian, and social activist, his gung-ho enthusiasm and infectious energy is not only highly inflammable, but also apparently indefatigable. Just light the blue touch paper and stand back …

Rollins fronted the California hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986. Following their breakup, he established a record label and publishing company (2.13.61 - his birth date) to release his spoken word albums, and formed The Rollins Band, which toured from 1987 until 2003, and again in 2006. He has hosted numerous radio shows, played dramatic roles in 'Jack Frost' and 'Sons of Anarchy,' and presents the educational TV series '10 Things You Don't Know About.'

Rollins lives a notoriously intense and peripatetic existence. He and his best friend Joe Cole were assaulted outside their Venice Beach home in 1991. Cole died after being shot in the face, but Rollins escaped and the murder remains unsolved. In an April 1992 LA Times interview, Rollins revealed he kept a plastic container of soil soaked with Cole's blood: "I dug up all the earth where his head fell ... and I've got all the dirt here, and so Joe Cole's in the house. I say good morning to him every day. I got his phone, too, so I got a direct line to him. So that feels good." In a 2001 interview with Howard Stern, Rollins speculated the reason they were targeted may have been because record producer Rick Rubin visited a few days prior to the incident, parking his Rolls-Royce outside their home. Rollins suspected this might invite trouble and wrote in his journal on the night of Rubin's visit: "My place is going to get popped."

In 2004, Rollins began hosting a weekly LA radio show, 'Harmony in My Head,' playing music ranging from early rock and blues, to hard rock, folk, punk, heavy metal, rockabilly, hip hop, jazz, world music, reggae, and classical music, often emphasizing B-sides, live bootlegs, and other rarities. He went on a short hiatus to undertake a spoken word tour in 2005, posting playlists and commentary online, which were expanded and published in book form as 'Fanatic!' Despite his constant touring, it continued until 2008, with pre-recorded shows between live broadcasts. In 2007, he published 'Fanatic! Vol. 2' and 'Vol. 3' the following year. In 2009, he started hosting a live weekly show on KCRW, indulging his eclectic musical tastes in the vein of legendary UK DJ John Peel.

Rollins is also an outspoken human rights activist, frequently speaking out on social justice and gay rights issues. He was the host of the WedRock benefit concert, which raised money for a pro-gay-marriage organization. During the 2003 Iraq war, he started entertaining troops overseas while remaining vocally opposed to the war, leading him to rile the audience at a Kyrgzystan air base when he said: "Your commander would never lie to you. That's the Vice President's job." He has made eight tours, including visits to US military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, believing it is vital to expose the troops to multiple points of contact with the rest of the world, noting that "they can get really cut loose from planet earth."

Rollins was active in the campaign to free the 'West Memphis Three,' who many believe were wrongfully convicted of murder, and have since been released from prison, but not exonerated. He joined Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in 2008 to launch a public service advertising campaign that helps veterans reintegrate into their communities. In 2009, he helped IAVA launch the second phase of the campaign, engaging the friends and families of Iraq and Afghanistan vets. In a 2009 Vanity Fair article, Rollins wrote of his support for the victims of the Bhopal disaster when methyl isocyanate leaked from Union Carbide's pesticide factory, killed 17,000, and exposed more than half a million people to the poisonous gas. He summed up his approach to activism in a 2010 radio interview as follows - "This is where my anger takes me, to places like this, not into abuse, but into proactive, clean movement."

As a vocalist, Rollins has adopted a number of styles. He was noted in the Washington DC hardcore scene for what journalist Michael Azerrad described as a "compelling, raspy howl," spitting out lyrics "like a bellicose auctioneer." He adopted a similar style with Black Flag, later explaining "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' (which begins with a one-minute spoken diatribe), barked his way through songs, and employed the loud-quiet dynamic that Anthony DeCurtis called "the sheets-of-sound assault."

In 2014, Rollins admitted a disdain for rehashing old music for the sake of it - "I don’t want to play old music. To me, it is fighting battles that are already over and calling yourself a warrior. For me, I see no courage or adventure in doing the old thing over again. If others want to, that’s for them. For myself, I have to move on. Life is too short to live in the past. There is a lot to be done." In 2016, he said, "For me, music was a time and a place. I never really enjoyed being in a band. It was in me and it needed to come out, like a twenty-five year exorcism. One day, I woke up, and I didn’t have any more lyrics. I just had nothing to contribute to the form, and I was done with band practice and travelling in groups."

Rollins has written eleven books and voiced the character of a mercenary hired to protect celebrities during an onslaught of the undead for the audiobook version of the novel 'World War Z.' Other audiobook recordings include '3:10 to Yuma' and the autobiographical 'Get in the Van,' for which he won a Grammy. In 2008, he began contributing to the 'Politics & Power' blog for the online version of 'Vanity Fair' and his posts, harshly critical of conservative politicians and pundits, have appeared under their own sub-title 'Straight Talk Espresso' since 2009. He writes a music column for the LA Weekly and contributes to Australian Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post, and alternative news website WordswithMeaning. Prior to the 2012 US presidential election, he broadcast a YouTube series called 'Capitalism 2012,' in which he visited state capitals and interviewed people about current issues, and this year he backed Bernie Sanders' campaign.

Rollins has also toured all over the world doing spoken word performances that frequently last over three hours. His style encompasses stand up comedy, accounts of his experiences in the world of music and during extensive travels around the globe, self-deprecating stories about his own shortcomings, introspective recollections from his own life, commentaries on society, playful, sometimes vulgar, anecdotes, and the power of music to transform consciousness.

During his recent performance at the Paramount in Wellington, Rollins was a one-man portable dynamo, a veritable powerhouse of electro-voltaic energy, generating sufficient megawatts to illuminate a small city. His preferred approach to an audience is first to mesmerize with liberal doses of wit, charm, and humor, then pounce like a feral beast on its prey and sever the jugular, wringing its scrawny neck free of any comforting preconceptions. It can be a traumatic and purgative experience, with sparks flying everywhere, but ultimately feels both cathartic and therapeutic. Like all the best pyrotechnical displays, the final effect is simultaneously incendiary and incandescent.

© Scoop Media

Howard Davis

Scoop Arts Editor

Educated at Cambridge and UCLA; worked on several major Hollywood feature films and as a Kundalini Yoga instructor in Los Angeles; currently enjoying life in Wellington.

Contact Howard Davis

• Email - howard@scoop.co.nz