Henry Rollins
From 80s hardcore punks Black Flag to his present day multiple careers as TV host and public figure, Henry Rollins still isn't scared of much...
By Ruth Hessey
Rollin withthe punches... and throwing a few of his own
Everyone thinks of Henry Rollins as a tough talking punk who trucks no bull. The last thing you expect is to see Rollins pussywhipped by anyone, let alone a paying audience. When Time Out caught up with him during his recent Provoked: An evening of quintessentially American opinionated editorializing and storytelling tour, he was muscled up but hardly aggro.
"You know what strips you of all the macho bullshit?" he said with a wink as he squared up for a photo. "Seeing a lot of really awful things."
So when Rollins hit Tel Aviv (screening Friday 16 May at 10pm on Movie Extra) he admits he was "careful".
That's an understatement. If you compare Rollins in New York to Rollins in Israel, one is a Scud missile, the other is a little boy trying hard to be liked. Of course Rollins can explain. The man can do a three hour show off the top of his head.
"The Israeli/Palestine question is one of the most interesting in my lifetime," he begins, knitting his brow and clenching his fists. "There is a massive Jewish population in America, and we support Israel, but America couldn't give a damn about the Israeli people. It's about strategy. Should Israel get the hell out [of Palestine]? Absolutely. Now to say that in Israel, man! In America if you are critical of Israel's disproportionate response to Lebanon or Palestine, people will call you an anti-Semite. In Tel Aviv you can't do that unless you want to be inside the venue for the next nine hours having more discussions, and I was there for nearly 90 minutes after the Tel Aviv show talking about what I had just said, which was extremely neutral. You put one foot in the lion's mouth or you just dive in: you're going to get the same result."
In fact, Rollins made a plea for peace. "When I summed up at the end of the night, I was like: ‘If you don't stop this, you pass this onto your kids: you're fighting this war because Daddy couldn't fix it, so have fun. What good is that?' A lot of people came up to me afterwards and said thank you."
Whether he's in Tel Aviv, Tehran or Belfast, Rollins follows a surprisingly monastic regimen when he's not mouthing off. "I'm primarily a solitary creature. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't dance, I don't go out and party, so I read and write, and research. I don't have a wife, I don't have family - I'm an uncle to a lot of kids, but this is it for me - so I'm an obsessive, workaholic type." RH
Henry Rollins: Uncut from Israel - Premieres Friday 16 May at 10pm on Henry Rollins: Live From Melbourne Friday 23 May 10pm on Movie Extra.