Henry Rollins takes Louisville by storm

By Rae Hodge–

Henry Rollins has been angry since he was 17 years old. The body of work that trails behind him says it all; his resume glistening with sweat. Former front-man of legacy punk band Black Flag and rabid global activist, Rollins is a vein-popping storyteller who still wraps the chord of his mic around his fist and leans aggressively toward the monitors on stage in the stance you’d expect of a chiseled man that’s taken a few beer cans to the chest over the years. No one’s throwing cans anymore, though.

These days, his fans enjoy the show from fold-out chairs. During his latest spoken word tour, Rollins brought his customary vitriolic diatribe to Headliners’ Music Hall on March 20. Rollins shows no signs of cooling down, and in a pre-show interview, gave The Louisville Cardinal an advance ear-full about his latest book, “Occupants,” the state of politics world-wide, and the decline of punk. “Occupants” is Rollins’ first photo collection, covering global famine and suffering a wide spread of countries, punctuated with his mad ravings.

“The book actually went into the L.A. Times Bestseller list, which was a first for me,” said Rollins. “It’s a book that I’ve been getting quite a lot of mail about but I don’t really do any of this stuff to get anyone’s compliment.”

Discussing the tenuous balance between western voyeurism and opening a dialogue between global audiences, Rollins said that, “One must be careful not to be that thing that you have contempt for. You go to these places that are really tough and you know the whole time that you get to leave. You see the incredible challenges that these people face and you respect it, you appreciate it. And you also realize that you don’t have to endure it…”

So how does one get objectivity in a situation like that? You just have to do your best to forget where you’re from and realize you’re never getting all the way into their world. If you can somehow pull your judgment back, you can get part way there. And maybe that’s the goal. and that’s what I attempt to do.”

“It actually gets me more and more inspired the more and more I go,” Rollins said, discussing the type of political fatigue that so many global activists find themselves mired in, “and you would figure ‘Why wouldn’t it burn you out?’ For me it makes me want to pick up that load and walk with it. Burning out to me would be defeat and I just will not allow that to be how it goes down for me. So I get further inspired and I utilize my anger and curiosity to go forward.”

When questioned about the coming election season, Rollins bore down on the impact of a youth vote and what it could mean for the next presidential administration.

“I think that there’s great evidence of what some people see as a threat of a youth vote,” said Rollins. “And why would you fear that unless you think its going to go against you? If you notice there are these incredible spontaneous voter restrictions that are coming out from the Republican side…”

“I think these people fear a youth vote. They’re making it very difficult for college student to vote. They’re making it very difficult for non-white people to vote. Why would that be? And so there it is, and I think its quite obvious. These people are kind of blatant with the whole thing so what does one do to combat that? I guess you jump through every damned hoop you can as an America and get a chance to vote. It’s no big deal; it’s only democracy at stake. Don’t feel any great need to get up early and police that at all.”

“You know, I came up in the Reagan era. By the time I was 20 or so Reagan was in office and in Europe and in America it was a very politically aware scene and in England it was all about action,” said Rollins. “I think to a certain degree to a great degree punk rock is no longer seen as that vehicle for change or a political iron in the fire its just turned into to a great degree just rock and roll with some attitude which is ok. Hopefully, something comes in its place to motivate. I think some aspects of punk rock lost its teeth and its fangs and its claws because it got a lot of money…and I think when it becomes that mainstream it becomes a kind of a house cat. In that it’s no longer a predatory animal to be feared. It’s kind of a thing that purrs and your mom can kind of hum along. So I think money and stabilization happened to anything that was a potential force for change.”

“Ultimately,” Rollins concluded, “I want something, anything to motivate young people to vote. That is what I want. I want to see young people voting. I want to see young people politically aware and I really will confess: I don’t care that much about my age group and my demographic. I’m concerned, yeah, but I’m not as concerned with that as I am with young people. I’ll take anything that will get an 18 year old to get to the polls because I think they’re going to make the right decision. Who they vote for is none of my damned business. that they vote is my great concern. ”

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Photo courtesy SST Records