Henry Rollins - Interview

  by Alex Morris

published: 13 / 1 / 2002

intro

Henry Rollins is charming and polite which is a relief, but he soon heats up when he sees me taking down these notes in shorthand. I don't think he's ever come across this before. A. If you take a

Henry Rollins is charming and polite which is a relief, but he soon heats up when he sees me taking down these notes in shorthand. I don't think he's ever come across this before. A. If you take a note it may not come out how I said it. It may be taken out of context. Now I feel like I'm being compromised. Q. This is your one day off after your arrival here, and your doing 30 dates. Do you get tired and long for some time off ? A. Its really going OK actually. It's not different every night. I can only live one life but I've got a lot of stories to tell. Sometimes I ad lib but I like to tell the same stories. My problem is I go on too long. Q. The auditorium is like your equivalent to the telephone. A. I know a lot of people and I like a lot of people but as far as real friends go... If I'm down and depressed there's nobody I call. I just cope with it on my own. I'm not one that reaches out. I have got some friends but we don't hang out much. There's nothing at my home that I miss, no humans, no-one is going to say "Oh, where's Henry ?". Only my manager who is on 15% ! But I really like how I live. I have an interesting time. Q. You can pour out your heart to thousands of people though ! A. I find being in front of people easy. But going up to a single person is difficult. If I met you I'd never go up and say "hi". It bothers me but I have to work on it, I've never been that good at meeting people or getting girlfriends. If I have a girlfriend and I go away on tour they go "fuck you!". Its just phone calls or letters and not everyone can handle that. But I like being busy like this. Q. You said the English are frigid. A. In England the audience are a lot sharper than in America and they are really into it. People here are really cool but in the 80's I didn't like coming here. People were antagonistic and used to throw things which was never fun. Q. Perhaps they were urged on by your aggressive image ? A.The music is very passionate, very loud. That's how it looks though its not necessarily me. Just because I am yelling and screaming doesn't mean that I don't have a sense of humour. A lot of people hide behind an image. I see that a lot in the English press and I see a lot of emphasis put on image and clothes. People who concentrate a lot on clothes are hilarious. I never give a fuck about clothing! I don't own many. Q. You've starred in two serious films this year - Frost and Morgan's Ferry A. If I tried to make people laugh I would never pull it off. I just kind of tell stories and sometimes it comes out funny. In Frost, I'm Coach Cronie with Michael Keaton, and I play a convict alongside Billy Zane in Morgan's Ferry. There is also the music I've done for the Small Soldiers film and a Spoken Word CD and two books ... No time for trivial things in life. Catch a Spoken Word show at a venue near you in December

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