Henry Rollins: It's a great time to be on stage if you’re an angry, conscientious American

Jul 4 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

HENRY ROLLINS, the Renaissance man of alternative America, is the type of person who will always say yes to a detour.

After all, you never know where it may lead.

In this instance, one of his unexpected excursions is to Liverpool, where he’s heading in August as part of his latest spoken word tour.

It’s one of several extra stops after his upcoming spell at the Edinburgh Festival.

“I’m most happy to be working, to be on stage,” he says.

“When I’m home, when I’m off the road, it’s depressing. Someone offers me a tour or chance to be on stage, I’m wagging my tail.

“You don’t have to twist my arm.”

He’s most recently been in New Orleans, where he has been making a documentary.

Then he was: “Going back to LA, then off to Asia, filming in Thailand, going to Burma, then back to America for like a minute, then over to Europe.”

If he gets curious about a place, he just takes off and goes there.

“You get a chance to see something you’ve never seen before.

“It forces me out of my shell, forces me to deal with the moment. What a story to tell, going to Burma, it’s going to really rock,” – Rollins is one of those wonderful characters in whose enthusiasm you can genuinely trust with that often annoying turn of phrase – “and then coming back in gives me something exciting to talk about on stage.”

In reality, he’s never short of material.

“It’s a great time to be on stage if you’re an angry, conscientious American.

“And going to places I have like Afghanistan, Pakistan and US military hospitals, it gives me quite a bit to talk about.”

For 25 years, Rollins, 47, has been spilling his guts on stage, publishing his tour diaries and making practically every aspect of his private life public.

He’s a straight talker rather than a show-off, and it makes for a remarkably deep connection with fans.

He does it, he says, “to deal with humanity perhaps in one of the only ways that is possible for me, dealing with many people at once, in a one-way conversation.

“I’m not the guy to bring to the party,” he says, teasing with some potential classic Rollins introspection.

“I don’t really know how to relate to people, but I’m fascinated by the world.

“I like to hear people’s stories, that have faith in human spirit, and see and report.”