What sets Henry Rollins apart from the other oddballs, in the oddball world of the
spoken word, is that he does not prepare his shows -- not in the traditional sense
anyway: He does not script his stories; he does not memorize gags; he doesn't use a set
list (he barely has a plan). He simply mounts the stage and starts talking.
"It's like stir fry," he said over the phone from his office in L.A. "I'm making it in
front of you. My CD reflects that. It's not slick."
The CD, his newest spoken word release, is called, A Rollins in the Wry. It was
culled from two (of about eight) shows he did in the spring of 1999 at Cafe Luna in Los
Angeles. It is part diary, part sociopolitical satire, part expose, part flatulence, and part
caterwaul.
Certainly, the thought of donning a stage and just "winging it" is horrifying to most
folks; fascinating to the rest. But just spend a few minutes chatting with Henry Rollins
and you quickly realize -- his problem isn't stretching the material to fill an entire
performance. His problem is what to leave out. Here's why:
1) His research is thorough:
"If there is a topic I'm interested in," he explained, "I pursue it. It's why I don't
spend my weekends at parties, passed out on a couch. I aim myself at my art. If I want
to talk constructively about George W. Bush, I better know what I'm talking about."
2) He has stories:
Consider his manifold experiences with tragedy and success: He survived the
nightmare of an abusive father; witnessed -- at close range -- the gruesome murder of
his best friend, Joe Cole; toured the world with Black Flag (one of L.A.'s most influential
punk bands); appeared in several major motion pictures (The Chase, Johnny
Mnemonic); VJ'ed slots on MTV; penned a column for Spin; and owns a publishing
company and a record label.
4) He has opinions:
"They're giving opinions away like kittens," said Rollins. "I get to have mine too:
Should Bono be mowing my front lawn and living in a cave so he'll never make music
again? Oh Yeees. But if some government agency tried to limit his access to a guitar,
I'd be standing right next to him going Fuck you, no you won't!"
3) He has energy:
Watch how Rollins -- singing or speaking -- dominates the microphone. Notice
his neck tighten when he sticks out his sledgehammer chin, or how he dips his head
backward to release a primordial howl. He doesn't just summon energy. He is energy.
And he delivers it directly into your face.
"I'm like a New York mugger," he shouted on Wry. "I telegraph everything I'm
gonna do. If you get mugged by me, I should have your watch."
While A Rollins in the Wry is primarily a humor/satire performance, it is not stand-
up comedy.
"With stand-up comics," he complains, "it's all about the joke. It's like a porno
film: The dialogue just gets you to the punch line. I'd rather riff on topics where there's
no bada bing, bada boom."
Also, unlike most comedians, Rollins' spoken word can be quite sobering and is
generally darker than what the new CD represents. Outtakes from the Cafe Luna shows
-- available on a double CD from his internet site: www.21361.com -- is evidence of that.
"I do that, "Pull-your-head-out-of-your-ass-and-look-at-it" kind of stuff," he
explained. "Like I talk about how J.F.K. Jr. was an arrogant asshole for trashing himself
and two innocent people. I say that the Kennedy males have been killing women and
crashing vehicles into water for generations; that Joe Kennedy (J.F.K.'s dad) was a
racketeering asshole; that J.F.K. was an adulterer who hung out with Mafiosos . . . ; and
that J.F.K. Jr. was just a guy who failed the bar exam twice, had a famous dad, and
carried out the generic Kennedy imperative -- to murder and crash. And that's not very
funny."
One thing that always struck me about Henry Rollins is how his solid stance
against drugs and alcohol contrast the highly intoxicated world of hard rock.
"I did my drunk thing between the ages of seventeen and seventeen," he said and
laughed. "It made me feel miserable. I tried a few [drugs] but never stuck with them."
"When you were with Black Flag and such an integral part of the 80's LA punk
scene," I asked, "was there an enormous influx of drugs and were you constantly being
put in the position to have to not-so-politely refuse them?"
"Black Flag was four starving vegetarians. We would've eaten meat if we had the
money to afford it, but we didn't. We didn't even have the money for pot until the end. . .
. We never had the rock star life where a bunch of people were trying to give us
cocaine. It wasn't that kind of music. It was a bunch of speed freaks and stoners and
they weren't exactly running up to band members to part with their stash. Besides,
offering us a line of coke wasn't going to get you any where. We were playing in dumps
with 400 people. Was speed somehow going to get you to the front of the dump?
Besides, no one is going to get into a conversation with me by offering me a line of
coke."
Henry Rollins is the easiest interview I've ever conducted. Just give him a topic
and he'll rave until he jars your earwax loose. So I asked Rollins to "riff" on some topics
of the day:
Napster V. Metallica: "If you're Metallica," he said after taking a moment and a
breath, "you already have about seventeen percent of the world's money in your bank
account. . . . Why Lars [Ulrich] would be concerned about some college kid scrapping
monetary crumbs from his whiskers, I don't quite divine. At the end of the day," he
sighed, "I'd rather you hear what I do than not hear it, whether or not you're gonna pay.
"I mean, I pay rent too, and making money is cool if you're into regular meals and
everything. . . . But I also think, that people in the music industry have always found a
way to fuck the artist. . . . Just like the record deal itself: You get a loan from a record
company. And for the privilege of that loan -- which you must pay back --they own your
record. You lose everything.
"So Napster boy is just one of the many masters that I have to answer to as a
musician. And I just accept it. Because there is always someone to ream the artist.
Napster boy is just another one. My asshole is so rounded out now, I no longer feel the
new dick in it."
XfL: "I guess it's gonna be a bunch of steroided-out athletes -- that couldn't make
the NFL-- doing incredibly grievous bodily harm to each other, he laughed. "It'll probably
be huge because people like it when football players make brains spill out of each
other's helmets. And we'll get to see some tits fall out of sweaters and G-string crotch
shots that show great labial glimpses of vaj."
Music writers/interviewers/critics:
"Many of the music writers of the day are musically illiterate. You read some of
the appalling writing in a magazine like Spin. These people just don't know what they are
talking about.
"Let's put it this way," he added, "I've answered your questions honestly. You've
been cool to me, so I'll be cool to you. But will I read this thing you are going to write
about me? No. Will I care what you wrote about me? Absolutely not. Will I take any word
you say in print and weigh it with anything more than a feather's weight? Absolutely not.
I live in the comfort of knowing, 99 percent of grain-fed boys and girls could not
handle me if I came across the table and got a hold of them. . . . I'll only be happy if I'm
going home with one of your ears."