Henry Rollins is 50 years old
When I first met him (this actually required some phone calls to some rather distant friends for their well documented events) he was 21 and I was 15. So let’s put this in perspective. I was the just a few months older than The Magpie. Times were very different then. Clubs and music and ‘scenes’ were so different its hard to even believe that just a few decades could be so distant.
I had the amazing experience of interviewing Henry just a while ago and Wednesday night I had the honor of sitting before this man for 2 hours as he spoke…..non stop.
Literally, not a drop of water. Non stop.
He spoke in a fluid and articulate manner about everything from the differences between New York and LA (New Yorkers are far more ‘touchy’ unflinching and physical) to the need for us to stop and listen to people in a Costco (those people may have no one else to speak to).
He reminisces of days gone by of Black Flag and 75 cent suppers. He leads in to stories of war and hardship to triumph and diligence to opening your mind and seeing what’s right there. Henry spoke of travels and cultures and respect and politics, buying ladders and New York wind.
At times the topics didn't tie together but the silence of the room made it evident that we all were holding on tight for this verbal rollercoaster.
Being brave, being smart, and being strong. Body and spirit and motivating us as his audience to get off the passive bus get up off your ass and look around you. Question authority but in doing so be informed be well spoken keep laughter alive, find humor in the human condition. Have the playfulness of an 8 year old and the reverence of an 80 year old and find the way to balance the two in harmony. Respect mankind, guide the youth, and don’t push people away.
He comes off as such an arrogant man to so many but those are those that take him out of context. He is beefed up and gray, scarred and pale. He’s the old man down the street he’s the bad ass rocker on the stage, he is everyman, and he is just a man.
I sat behind a guy who would raise his arm up as if in Church. ‘Amen”, right on … whatever. At first I wanted to punch the dude in the head. Put your freaking arm down you idiot ‘can I get a witness’. But then within time I realized Henry was a preacher. A preacher of thoughts.
He wasn’t trying to sell you anything or save you from anything on the contrary he was preaching clarity. We lose sight as we shuffle in a world of crowds to just step aside and watch and interact and learn in everything we do. He touched the man in front of me on some cosmic spiritual level. Henry touched me as well, 30 years ago and a couple days ago and for the same reasons but very different methods. Henry Rollins is a motivator hand him a microphone and let it roll. You’d be engaged challenged and empowered. It’s a tremendous gift.
I’m often stunned at how meaningful things are in retrospect. How a few choice words or actions can at the time seem irrelevant and how they evolve into these ‘aHA’ moments. The arm raiser was feeling it last night, so as ridiculous as he may have appeared he was moved and it shouldn’t be my issues to judge.
Henry Rollins is a 50 year old punk rocker. True to form, what every one of us old time punkers should grow to be. We should be fighting for the same causes laughing in the face of authority, solving world issues one issue at a time on our own DIY level. Fighting laughing dancing evolving keeping our minds and hearts open to the experiences that play before us every day