|
|
|
Review of Rollins CD, Get Some Go Again (Mar. 2000) Previous Interview with Henry Rollins (Jan. 1998) Related Artists: - Fugazi - Sonic Youth - Warped Tour - H2O and the Bouncing Souls  |
 NY Rock freelancer Bill Ribas recently gave Henry Rollins a call to discuss wives, girlfriends, and Nike shorts. |
| |
| NYROCK: | There's a whole new lineup for the new album. You're using Mother Superior. Any reason for choosing them over the old band members? |
|
HENRY: |
Yeah, it's not that I was displeased or didn't like somebody in the band. It was more that we had done it. You know, the band was an equation. We found out what "x" was. Ten and a half years. Did it. Got the black belt. There was nothing more to do. It was kind of like graduation, where, it's kind of joyous in a way, and real sad, because you're moving away from these people. But now you're moving on to something else. And at the end of '97, it was very apparent to me that we were done. I didn't want to say what had already been said [musically]. That's hard enough to escape in this business. So, I think we all felt the need to move on. And immediately everyone in the band was busy doing other stuff. Everyone got quite busy. One guy went out with Bowie. One guy went out with J. Geils. One guy went out with DJ Logic. One guy went to produce another band. I mean, everyone just went right to it. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
The new album has a "back to basics" sound. There's a certain rock and roll purity.... | ||
|
HENRY: |
Well, we just recorded very simply. It wasn't like an ethic. We basically harnessed the time-tested Duke Ellington principle: feels good is good. And we would write a song real fast. We'd play it. We'd bash it out a few times, and if everyone's coats were glossy, and their tails were wagging, I reckoned that was good enough. You know, I said, "Was that fun or what?" And it was like, "Fuck, yeah." And I'd go, "Good, then it was a song." I just spent sixteen months writing Come In and Burn [1997]. I'm not going to spend sixteen months writing an album ever again. Sixteen days, maybe. Not sixteen weeks. Not sixteen months. No way. Did it. Didn't like it. Not doing it again. So we just put the songs together real quick, and recorded very quickly. No more than three takes per song. We just did everything very un-apologetically, you know. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
When you started with Black Flag you were twenty, and you just had your birthday a couple of weeks back... | ||
|
HENRY: |
I'm 22 now. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
What's different for you about performing live? Certain things have to be easier.... | ||
|
HENRY: |
My ass hurts more. Well, it becomes more physically challenging cause I'm forty almost. Try pull this off at 39, up there heaving. So I work really hard at keeping in good physical shape so I can go up there and really put it on, you know. And when I was 22, I didn't have to work out, I did anyway, but I didn't have to. Now, you know, I watch what I eat and all that. So that's all changed, post gig I need more recovery time. You know I basically do the show and go right to bed pretty much. I read, do some writing, and then I hit the sack, just so the next night I'm in there giving it all again. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Does the traveling ever get to you, or do you get inspired always seeing new stuff? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Oh, I like to travel. It's what I'm used to. I've been doing this for so many years, it's kinda what I know. The travel's fine. It's not always easy. I mean, I'll be on the road – oh man, I think I've already been to Europe twice this year, I got another five trips to go, something like that (to Europe alone) – so I'm on the road 9 to 11 months a year. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Wow. | ||
|
HENRY: |
Since I was twenty. 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. It's like this is this thing I'm doing before the tour starts. It's very strange to be, quote, home. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Getting back to the amount of energy it takes for you to do a performance, do you ever see the day when you're just going to wake up and say "enough of this"? | ||
|
HENRY: |
| ||
|
NYROCK: |
Creatively speaking, you're a Renaissance man. You've been in bands. You've written books. You have your own publishing company. Is there anything you haven't done yet that you want to try? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Not really. I've been going out with this girl, so I've been trying to be present for that. I've been trying to be half of a relationship. And that's different, you know, 'cause this woman really expects me to show up. Not like in time for dinner, but with my personality and all of that. That's a new thing for me, because I'm pretty much the road guy. I'm not used to someone going, "Yeah, well, what the fuck did you just mean by that?" And I'm like, oh shit, you know. So I've been learning a lot. The last couple of months have been a hell of a learning experience. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Back in the days when you were in school, what did you want to be when you grew up? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Singer in a band. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
So it's pretty much... | ||
|
HENRY: |
Yeah, but in those days, this was like pre punk rock, I didn't have any idea how one gets there. But I'd see Nugent and all these people and just go man, that's me, that's how I want to be kicking it. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Do you think you're an obsessive person? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Probably, yeah. I've wasted a lot of time looking for that pen I lost. Dollar thirty nine fucking pisses me off, man; I'll turn over tables looking for that thing. Yeah, I get into stuff. If I get into some writer, I want to read everything, the notes, what he wrote on the back of a napkin. Whatever. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Anybody you're reading now? | ||
|
HENRY: |
I'm partway through Homer's Iliad, and I've been finishing up all these F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories. There's a lot of them man, and I'm about half pounding my way through. I've read about a hundred and I've got a bit more to go. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
And what music have you been listening to lately? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Oh, I listen to a lot. Well, I just got this new turntable. So I've been bringing out a lot of my vinyl which I didn't want to play on my old turntable. So I've been playing a lot of my old stuff. Uh, listened to that Who BBC sessions CD the other day. That was pretty cool. New Pumpkins record I checked out. Let's see, listening to a lot of Duke Ellington right now, a lot of Thin Lizzy bootlegs that I just got, some Alice in Chains bootlegs that I just got, some really obscure Beatles radio gigs from this European tour. I've been checking those out and some Rolling Stones outtakes from Tattoo You that a friend made a CD up for me. And also mix CDs I make for the car. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Is there a softer side to Henry Rollins the public never sees? | ||
|
HENRY: |
I don't know, pretty much what you see is what you get. I mean, well, when you see me with the band, and all the sweating and stuff, I'm not like that in traffic. I'm not like that at dinner, but neither is Iggy Pop. Gentleman Jim offstage. And that's not because he's faking it there. It's because you mix me with music and that's what happens. I don't know about being soft or whatever. I mean I'm good with kids. I know how to rake leaves. I buy my own groceries. I do my own laundry. I laugh a lot. I mean I don't crochet or anything. Well, put it this way: I'm more inept than my leading personality trait is ineptness. So I'm sure there's a lot of laughs to be had there, even when I'm not planning on it. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Clint Eastwood once said in a movie, "A man's got to know his limitations." | ||
|
HENRY: |
That's right. Said it in either Dirty Harry or Magnum Force. I forget which one. Said it to Hal Holbrook. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
What are some of your limitations? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Mine? Oh my vocal range, my height. You know on the tip-off I could definitely beat William Shatner or Prince, and that's about it. Um, I never was God's gift to sports or anything, never had great eyesight. I don't know. I've read really good books, and so I know I'm not a good writer. I have a lot of really good records, so I know I'm really not great at the music. But I also think there's something to be said for giving it all you've got. I think there's a few brownie points to be had. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
What goes through your head when you're onstage? | ||
|
HENRY: |
With the band? | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Yeah. | ||
|
HENRY: |
Breathing. Timing. Execution. Little else. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Here's a theoretical one. If you could go back in time, who are some performers you'd like to see most? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Probably Coltrane, Hendrix, Charlie Parker. You know, the great beboppers. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
The earlier Hendrix or the later Hendrix? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Later, 1970. That to me, Hey Baby, all that stuff, the later stuff, Maui, all that stuff to me, when he was playing the blues stuff, with like Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell, that to me is when he was playing the ultimate soulful shit. I would have loved to have seen that. James Brown, the Famous Flames, that would have been cool. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
How many pairs of black shorts are you taking on the European tour? | ||
|
HENRY: |
The same pair I've been taking out since '92. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
It's just that same one? | ||
|
HENRY: |
Yeah, people are very impressed by those shorts. Like, wow, the same ones? Yeah. And now I have to dunk them in water to get them to be cloth-like, 'cause otherwise they stand up straight. I can balance them on my outstretched palm. Sometime maybe someday they'll do the tour for me. My problem is Nike won't make those anymore. They're like these really big – they look like boxer shorts. And I really like them, and I wear these lycra leg-hugging bike pants underneath to keep my quads warm. And that's kind of been my gear, because I sweat a lot, and anything [that is] cloth rots. I've been using this setup for years. I just wring it out in the sink after the show. Hang it up in the bus to dry, and two hours later I'm ready to go again. That's why I stopped wearing shoes. I'd wear them out. I couldn't afford sneakers. You know, the sweat just eats rubber. So I just dispensed with all of that, 'cause it'd always be Lake Rollins, anyway, all around me. So I just went to what's functional. Everyone's like, you're running naked 'cause you think you're so... and I'm like, no man, this is function. I mean, look at me. What am I supposed to do? Come out in leather pants and a stylish shirt and a braided beard? I'm not the dude in whatever band. I'm working up here. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Any big plans for the weekend? | ||
|
HENRY: |
I got band practice tonight. No workout. And then tomorrow night we're playing this KNAC or KLOS online party. It's us and Anthrax, and a whole bunch of bands. So we get 40 minutes onstage at the Palladium tomorrow night. Filter is playing tonight. That's my Saturday night. Tonight, I think I was just going to hang out with this girl I've been going out with. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Is there ever a question you wish someone would ask you? | ||
|
HENRY: |
No. I mean I never really think of that. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
On a personal note here, we caught you on the Sessions at 54th Street show the other night (it was great), and my wife, who is seven months pregnant... | ||
|
HENRY: |
Wow. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Junior was kicking like crazy when you came on. | ||
|
HENRY: |
[Laughter] | ||
|
NYROCK: |
So you got fans that aren't even born yet. | ||
|
HENRY: |
Well, that's wild. So kids at that age, they can hear what's going on? | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Yeah, he kicks when I play guitar. | ||
|
HENRY: |
I guess since there's so much water they probably hear it very well. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Yeah, when you came on my wife looked over and said, "Oh my God, look at this," and her stomach, it was almost like Alien. | ||
|
HENRY: |
Whoa. Well, that's cool. I hope it didn't wear her out too much. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
Junior's a rocker. | ||
|
HENRY: |
That's awesome. | ||
|
NYROCK: |
I just wanted to get that in there. | ||
|
HENRY: |
Cool. | ||
|
|
March 2000 
|
