Punk Rock Icon: A Q&A With Henry Rollins
A couple years ago, Dakota Gilliland joined the GAD! Zine ranks, first with his unique art, and soon after, with his wonderful interviews. He continues to contribute his writing to both the zine and this blog with enthusiasm. There's a lot more to come, but in the meantime, check out this Q&A that Dakota conducted with the legendary Henry Rollins of Black Flag/Rollins Band way back in 2015....
HENRY ROLLINS: I
have always done everything creatively motivated; writing,
music, etc., to do it. To be able to do something completely, to hit
it as hard as you can and give all to it, something like music,
that's all I have ever tried to do, all I ever wanted to get out of
it was the opportunity to expend energy. I had no idea that anything
I did in this mindset would matter to anyone. I have never written
anything, done anything on stage thinking, "This will...."
I have only tried to be clear. That anyone cares about what I do has
never ceased to surprise me. I think I am lucky to feel this way
because it allows for me to not lose the plot.
People are
afraid of failure. How did you decide to leave the head manager
position of your job and become a lead singer in a band?
It was
audition for my favorite band and by doing so, risk success/failure
or wake up the next morning and go back to the same job and spend a
life time wondering what could have been. What would you have done?
Exactly.
How has
social media and the internet affected the music scene?
I don't
think there is enough time or space to answer that fully because the
effect has been so top-to-bottom, from the mechanical to the ethical
to even how we consider music, it turns into a topic that is almost
as big as music itself. On the not so great side of things, the
industry and now even the fans have found ways to make sure musicians
stay struggling for a means by which to feed themselves and have a
life that escapes fiscal anxiety. On the good side, I think that the
internet is allowing for people to reward their curiosity by going to
a band's site and listening to music for free and maybe becoming a
fan, or allowing their interest to become more enhanced and by doing
so, find out all kinds of music, bands and artists they never would
have found otherwise. The internet is partially responsible for a
ridiculous amount of records in my collection.
With most of
our scene being raised in the heart of the Bible Belt, religion plays
a part in almost all our lives. Do you think punk rock and religion
can coincide?
I think
you can have faith and anything else. Faith and Darwin, marriage
equality, etc. It all depends on who you're dealing with at any
particular time. Some religious people can be very intolerant of
certain ways of going about things. Personally, I make most of my
decisions as to what's good and bad / right and wrong by seeing if
any issue passes the smell test Constitutionally. Some religious
people will always see something like Punk Rock as anathema to what
they stand for. Some punks might find aspects of one or any religion
to be lunacy.
Any advice
for anyone out there trying to get their music heard?
If I were
trying to do it in 2015, I would use a Bandcamp page. Get heard for
free and then set up a pay option. Everyone gets to check you out and
you're not sitting on boxes of records that will go unsold.
Interview and Art by Dakota Gilliland
[Originally appeared in GAD! Zine Issue 9]
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