Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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ROLLINS, Henry

(b Henry Garfield, 13 February 1962, Washington DC) Singer, poet. He was diagnosed as hyperactive as a small child, dosed with drugs and watched by researchers through one-way mirrors; his parents divorced. He saw his closest friend murdered by muggers '92; bullets aimed at Rollins missed. He works out every day, his beefy arms tattooed; he looks like a man you wouldn't want to meet in an alley, but he is described as kindly. Perhaps the reason he is not a killer is that he is a poet and a rock singer instead, though he can hardly sing at all.

Long before the grunge movement examined the underside of the American dream (see Grunge, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins) it was inspired by Black Flag, a Los Angeles band tapping into a well of anger from '76; Rollins joined early '80s, roaring and shouting his lines. Their own SST label gave a break to Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü and others; Black Flag broke up '86, never having appeared on a Billboard chart, but a dozen of its albums were still in print ten years later (My War '84 highly rated). Rollins went solo: albums included Hot Animal Machine, mini-LP Drive By Shooting (by Henrietta Rollins and the Wife-Hating Child-Beaters), Life Time '87-8 all on Fundamental; Over and Hard Volume on World Service, live Turned On on Quarterstick/Touch and Go, all '89; and by the Rollins Band: The End Of The Silence '92 and Weight '94 on Imago-RCA, the last reaching the top 40 albums USA.

Rollins is also a witty and effective raconteur, spoken-word albums (portions described in one rock book as 'offensively poignant') include Get In The Van: Life On The Road With Black Flag on Time Warner; Human Butt, Sweatbox, Big Ugly Mouth and Live At McCabe's all on Quarterstick; two-CD The Boxed Life on Imago. He runs a publishing company called 2.13.62, one of his collections of poems and diary entries called Now Watch Him Die; he has hosted shows on MTV and appeared in films opposite Charlie Sheen and Keanu Reeves. 'Life is short, man. You gotta jam while you can stand up straight.'