Where does one begin to catalouge Henry Rollins' accomplishments ? Poetry books,CDs, movies, magazine columns,TV, voiceovers, interior design. (Just kidding about that last one.) Even though Rollins began his post Black Flag career with CDs such as Hot Animal Machine and spoken word recordings Big Ugly Mouth in the late 80s, his presence didn't became a mainstay on MTV, VH-1, and the spoken word movement in 1991 and 1992. I recall a particularly entertaining spot as a host on 120 Minutes unlike the screaming, shirtless behemoth of his videos was actually quite a laff riot. Ya know," my friend said, "in some ways hes like the All-American guy" Then a few minutes later he added thoughtfully, "Ya know, there are guys on death row who look like him." And you couldn't argue with either statement! And,by the time 1993 rolled around, every well-stocked independent bookstore had at least four different titles of his poetry books!! The best one is Seen A Grown Man Cry, I annotated it with lots of asterisks -more than the Norton anthology of poetry got in college. (This choice of fave poetry may explain why those damn East Coast literary journals won't even answer my query letters.) Released in 1993, the video set Boxed Life, Henry postulates on just about everything. However, Henry includes other authors on his 2-13-61 imprint - Hubert Selby Jr., Henry Miller, Exene, Nick Cave, etc.
The Rollins band released End of Silence around this time. (Low Self Opinion 1994's Weight with its single Liar got an even better reception from critics and the public, as the song Liar garnered a lot of alternate radio play. The video also recieved airplay on MTV,pleasing both the Headbangers' Ball and 120 Minutes crowd.The Rollins Band also played Woodstock in 1994 and Henry was also named Details Man of the Year.
Other credits on Rollins' ecletic resume include - voiceover (Listen for him as narrator for the Doors Legends special on VH1. And he's currently the host of Fox TV's Night Visions, where he intros segments of this new millennium Twilight Zone, ala Rod Serling. Get in the Van won a spoken word Grammy - take that, you politically correct wordsmiths. I cannot stress enough that you will need to protect your hearing at any Rollins concert. No obligatory power ballads here. It's just loud.
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