There are many strings to Henry Rollins’ bow – writer, actor, comedian, activist, radio and TV host – but the oldest and his most recognisable is that of musician, as the fiery punk frontman of American hardcore band, Black Flag, and his own group that followed, Rollins Band.
With not one, but two, reformed Black Flag lineups heading out on tour for the American summer, Rollins has answered the many queries as to his position on the nostalgia for the band, with the former frontman officially announcing he’s turning his back on music as he’s no longer able to summon the necessary passion to perform live.
The 52-year-old first addressed the issue in his regular column for the LA Weekly, writing: “I got asked by someone if I was going to go on tour this summer and play what at this point is old music. I told the person that I wasn’t because that currently, my future is getting in the way of my past.”
Rollins, who is currently filming a history-based TV show he is to host, says that he hasn’t actually played music for a number of years due to his other commitments but has recently made his announcement official in light of the forthcoming Black Flag tours under two splintered iterations.
One Black Flag tour features the original band name, featuring Greg Ginn, drummer Robo, and singer Ron Reyes, and another called FLAG featuring Black Flag co-founder Keith Morris, bassist Chuck Dukowski, Descendents guitarist Stephen Egerton, and drummer Bill Stevenson.
Writing in his column of his decision to quit music, Rollins says:
I tell you this because in the summer months, you can count on bands that have been gone for years who will reassemble and go onto stages all over the world playing ‘vintage music’… I read the interviews where the musicians claim that now they can really play this music. I don’t doubt them, but therein lies the problem. Musicians should not play Music. Music should play musicians.
…This is why I stopped touring with a band. I put up my fists and there was no longer anything there. It was heartbreaking, but it was clear. Music had moved on. Such was my reverence for its limitless power, I faced this truth and moved on in search of new battles.”
Those new battlegrounds have included Rollins’ touring as an in-demand spoken word performer, mixing his many passions into a mix of humorous anecdotes, engaging storytelling, and political soapboxing – the closest fans will get to seeing him performing on a stage.
Speaking to WENN (as Yahoo! 7 News reports) Rollins has spoken further about walking away from writing, performing, and touring. “I stopped doing music years ago, I stopped being played by music,” says the singer. “Music used to compel me to play it, so I never had an easy night onstage doing music, it was physically an ass-whooping.”
“It was really hard, insane and very painful,” Rollins says of the physical demands of performing. “I would train for weeks getting ready for tours and you’re playing in places like (legendary NYC club) CBGBs and it’s, like, 115 degrees Fahrenheit [46 degrees Celsius] and there’s no real breathable air… And that was five to six nights a week for months at a time and every night I’d have to nerve myself up to go out there.”
“The need to go onstage and get my brain flattened every night left me and what I didn’t wanna do is go onstage and perpetrate a fraud,” says Rollins. “You cannot fool an audience.”
“As painful as it was to leave music, I had to be as reverent to it as when it was still putting fire into my veins, and so, as a respectful Samurai, I had to re-sheath the blade and walk away.”
Speaking of former members touring under the Black Flag name and playing old material, the outspoken Rollins says: “Some of my peers, for one reason or another, can’t seem to walk away when it’s obviously after the fact … It’s their lives, I’m very busy with mine. I’m not that dead yet and so that’s why I do not do the past, really… I don’t need to be 18 again.”
Rollins says that even writing lyrics is a struggle, “I have forgotten so much,” he admits. “When it left it was like an animal dropping me from its jaws and I really don’t remember what it was like to see or hear or feel something and be compelled to stop what I was doing and write a song.”
Writing with philosophical candour in his LA Weekly column, Rollins says:
Music cannot be mastered. What they think is control and mastery is not only hubris but even worse, it is Music’s great indifference. Simply put, Music no longer plays them. Music has moved on to more worthy combatants.
Thankfully, Music is but one of myriad beasts with which to tangle, and in this kind of conflict, age is meaningless. Life is short. When one beast dumps you, summon the guts to find another. If it tries to kill you, the party has definitely started. Otherwise, life is a slow retirement.
To each their own. This is how I am running my show.
