Anger management 

Page 7 of 10

The creative outlet for you is through this as a monologue on spoken word or Teeing Off on the tv show ... instead of putting in song form.

"I don't mind that, as long as I'm doing new music. If I can find some motivated people and if I had an idea in my head for some new music or if I heard a sound that interested me, I'd probably clear out my schedule or find a clear time and then just go do that for 90 days nonstop. Right now, I just don't have ... nothing in my head is screaming at me to go do that. When and if, believe me, I'll be on it like I've never been in a band before. I can't wait. That's just kind of how I do things. My tail wags furiously. When I sign on the line and say I'm gonna be there. I'm not doing you a favor by showing up. I want to be there. So, when I go on stage and say, 'I'm really glad to be here tonight,' trust me, I mean it. People think, 'Oh yeah, whatever.' No, no, no. I'm not bullshitting you, man."

So, it's not a giving up, you're just waiting for the spark.

"Yeah. Keep being honest, basically. Lyrically — I write lyrics all the time. I'm always jotting down couplets or whatever cause that's just how I do it. I'm always writing down on paper — I have multiple notebooks — and a laptop open and always putting this down, putting that down. Some people I know use their little digital recorder and they're always kind of making verbal notes. I like to write things. And I do that all the time."

Not to take anything away, at all, from Black Flag, but here it is 20 years later and you've done so many things — spoken word, writing, on TV, acting and everything — but still in all of these stories you read "Henry Rollins" with "Black Flag" following it or shortly before it. Are you surprised by that or what is your opinion of that?

"No. I know how the media works and they need something to tie it all together and maybe that's it for them. I hardly think it's the only thing I've ever done. The evidence would bear out that it's not."

Right, but it's never "Singer/actor/writer."

"Well, sometimes it is. Also, you write for a living. You're sometimes given a two-page press release or 'He's the Black Flag guy, right?' That's kind of the frame of reference sometimes, and they've got to fill three inches of column and then they've got to fill three inches of column about someone else and they just kind of knock it out. Sometimes these guys just go for the 'easy lay.' They go, 'Oh yeah, he's the Black Flag guy' and that was 10 words and 90 more to go. If you think about it that way, that's fine. I did more shows with the Rollins Band and sold vastly more records with the Rollins Band and saw more countries and was in front of more people with the Rollins Band. Not putting down Black Flag — I'm just saying I didn't just do that and then go retire and bask in the ever-fading glory. I kind of went, 'That was one band. Did that. Now, I'm doing this band and I'm on to the next thing.' The Rollins Band did very well."

A high school teacher of mine once wrote some of your lyrics on the blackboard to kind of spark conversation and thought. They were from "Low Self Opinion." The stanza, or whatever you'd call it, of "If you could see the you..."

"That I see when I see you ... right."

(NOTE TO THE CURIOUS: The entire lyric is "If you could see the you that I see when I see you, you'd see yourself so differently, believe me.")

Do you ever look back on lyrics and go, 'Damn, that was a good one'?

"No, I'm not looking at them, but I get a lot of mail, like every day. If I am to believe what these people say to me is true, then the lyrics of several of these songs and parts of the books have been very motivational for these people and I'm not trying to brag on that, I'm just saying this is what they say. I get this from everything from guys writing me from Bradley fighting vehicles to guys and gals writing me from prisons to teachers saying, 'I use your stuff in my class.' or 'I use your books in my class and am bringing some of my students to your show next month.' Or 'Henry, I brought in some of your books to my college class and my professor wants to meet you.' 'I'm a recovering alcoholic and your books have meant a lot to me they were a big part of my recovery process.' And I've gotten that kind of letter or that's been said to me in person by everyone from people who have sold 25 million albums to some guy I'm never gonna meet again on an airplane. So, I guess I've had some impact, like I said, if the letters and the testimony are to be believed. Do I ever trip on it? Not really. I just kinda go, 'Oh, OK. Well, cool.' It is part of the thing in that hopefully what you do inspires, cause without a doubt I am inspired by other people. And there's a lot of people I've met who say, 'Man, I just want to thank you for writing that book, doing that thing or whatever it was.' And it's always nice to be able to say, 'Man, thank you for that cause that really helped me.'"