By Tequila Mockingbird
T: You have been traveling a lot this year, where have you been?
Henry: In the last 17 months: Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Iran, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, South Africa, Djibouti, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany Belgium, Ireland, North Ireland, Spain, Holland, Scotland, England, Canada, Switze3rland, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong.
T: Are you doing poetry?
Henry: No, but I am writing a lot.
T: Have you published any new books?
Henry: Depends on when is new. I had two come out last year and have two coming out this year.
T: Tell me when you’re going on tour again?
Henry: I just finished 119 shows/9 months/13 countries a couple of weeks ago and will resume in August.
T: What do you read when you are traveling?
Henry: Over the last several months I have read Naomi Klein, Chalmers Johnson, Jeremy Scahill, Eric Campbell, Alfred Jarry, Frank Rich, Nick someone, I forget the last name, it’s a book on Cambodia, Morris Berman. Not much fiction, mostly history, investigative stuff.
T: Are you publishing any books?
Henry: Just my own stuff. It takes my staff and I a lot of time to keep it all on schedule.
T: What is your favorite food?
Henry: Sushi.
T: What is your favorite hobby or what do you like to collect?
Henry: I like collecting records, flyers and things related to music.
T: Are you sober?
Henry: I don’t drink or do drugs, so I guess so. But it’s not like I stopped, I didn’t start.
T: What bands do you like now?
Henry: What has been most interesting to me are all the noise bands that have been releasing a ton of material. Bands like Wolf Eyes and Yellow Swans I think are really interesting.
T: Where will you go next?
Henry: In July, I go to Thailand and then into Burma. In August, I will be in Europe and in September I will be in China and North Korea. It took a long time to get a visa.
T: Do you remember the records we did together with Harvey Kubernick? Voices of the Angeles…
Henry: Of course. Those were very inspired times.
T: What do you want to tell the kids out there?
Henry: Vote. Get a passport and go see things, meet people from other places, eat their food, dig their culture and get your information from the source.
T: Where did you grow up?
Henry: Washington D.C.
T: What was it like?
Henry: When I was living there from 1961 to 1981, it was a good time but also racially tense so there was, at times, some intense encounters but it informed me politically, and I like to visit when I can. The music scene there was, and still is, one of the best there is. It was great to see the early Bad Brains shows and the first ever Minor Threat shows.
T: How did you feel about school?
Henry: I didn’t like it but that was only because of where I went. I went to an all-boys prep school with a lot of ex-Military as instructors and they were a drag and I barely got through the classes, but I ended up with a lot of discipline and a good education that has served me well.
T: Did you go to public school?
Henry: I went to public school for three years and then got taken out of it for being difficult and violent.
T: What year did you join Black Flag?
Henry: 1981.
T: What was Black Flag about at the very beginning, has it changed over the years and if so, how?
Henry: You would have to ask Greg Ginn about that, it was his band. I thought the band started as an angry insurgent force and then went kind of sideways around 1985. Again, you would have to ask the owner of the band, I was only the singer, the 4th one so I have no real hold on the band or its legacy.
T: What’s your favorite LA restaurant?
Henry: I don’t have one.
T: If you could be anything you want what would that be?
Henry: A little taller? I don’t know. I am what I am.
T: Who is the best audience?
Henry: I’m not picky but America, England and Australia are perhaps the best. Israel and Germany are also great. It’s hard to say. It’s like asking which of your kids you like the most. Any audience I am in front of is the best one at the moment. I am just really happy to be onstage and working.
T: Do you like your job as a DJ for indie103.1?
Henry: I like it too much.
T: What do you like about your job? And are there any restrictions you dislike?
Henry: I like being able to play music I like to an audience who wants to listen. I wish the FCC wasn’t so restrictive.
T: Tell us about your TV show on IFC?
Henry: I had a show in IFC, a weekly show, but this year I am shooting three live specials for them. Two of them are done, and we’re shooting one more in June.
T: Do you have a piece of written work you can share with us?
05-08-08 Phnom Penh, Cambodia: 2130 hrs. In my room. Today was one hell of an experience that will no doubt have to investigate further. I went to one of the many killing fields in Cambodia today. The one I went to is perhaps the best known and most visited. All there is now, besides the massive tower holding thousands of skulls, is what’s left of the graves bodies were dumped into. The rains have come and moved the soil so everywhere you look; there are piles of partially buried clothes now at the surface. Bone fragments, teeth and buttons are everywhere. I looked down at one point and there was part of a jaw with teeth still intact. In the less traveled parts of the place, I went looking around to find thick patches of vegetation, always growing through bits of clothing, the bodies underneath no doubt enriching the soil. It’s been 30 years and bones remain. I found a bit of blue twine used to bind hands together. There are places where people have put newly found bone fragments; small piles of bones are carefully leaned up against trees and other things. After that I went to S21, the prison where thousands went in and 7 came out. There’s a lot you can read about the place. In some of the rooms you can see one of the Ho Vin Tayâ photographs as he found the room years ago, with the decomposing body still chained to the bed frame. The frame is still there and so are the remnants of the body and body fluids. There’s several rooms of hundreds of mug shots of the men and women who were brought to S21, tortured and taken out to be executed. Why, they even have their own waterboarding device there! It’s how they got people to admit to all kinds of things, just to make it stop. What do you call the people who do this kind of thing?
Henry Rollins can be found online at www.henryrollins.com
