The inspiring reason Henry Rollins remains prolific: “I’m no professor”
Reduced to its essence, the punk rock movement was about putting the means of musical production into the hands of ordinary people. While before punk, the music industry was seen as a strange and glamorous world, only open to a few lucky individuals. Punk taught people that anybody could make music, regardless of their gender, race, sexuality, or social class, so long as they had something important to say. This ethos gave the world countless incredible songwriters and performers, including Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins.
Growing up in Washington D.C. during the 1970s, there was very little for a young Henry Rollins to attach himself to; it was a treatise time for the United States politically, economically, and culturally. On top of that, Rollins had to deal with a particularly difficult childhood, storied by his parents’ divorce and the horrific experience of being sexually assaulted at the age of only ten. For a long time, it seemed as though there would be no escape from the depression and anxieties suffered by Rollins during his adolescence until punk rock came along.
At least in the United States, the home of punk came in the form of New York City, which produced a wealth of groundbreaking artists like The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, and The Ramones. Although it would take a little while longer for the ripples of punk to affect Washington DC, the city soon became known for its pioneering hardcore punk scene. Harsher, faster, and much more aggressive than the first wave of punk, Rollins found a natural home in the hardcore scene, quickly forming the group State of Alert in 1980.
It was during this pivotal time in Rollins’ life that the punk icon was working a minimum-wage job in hospitality, serving ice cream, of all things. Of course, his life changed indefinitely after being recruited by legendary punk outfit Black Flag, which set him on a path to rock and roll stardom, but it seems as though Rollins still thinks about his minimum wage roots on a regular basis.
During a 2008 interview, Rollins reflected on his earlier years, sharing, “I am from the minimum wage working world, that was what I was doing before I joined Black Flag, I was earning $3.50 an hour scooping ice cream and taking inventory and making the nightly deposit at a Häagen-Dazs in Washington D.C.” summarising, “I am, basically, equipped to park your car, sweep up after your pet, and put fries in a bag as you drive by a box on the side of a Wendy’s.”
The life that Rollins envisioned for himself is far from the punk legend he soon became. However, the potential for the frontman to return to his previous life has always weighed heavy in Rollins’ mind, so he is not one to get ideas above his station. “What I’m doing is, basically, trying to stave off the inevitability of me going back into that world,” he revealed, “I will be back there, with a microphone around my face before all of this is over, I have a feeling.”
With such a pessimistic, or cruelly realistic, take on the world, it is a wonder that Rollins ever got to the position he currently holds – starring in films and television series, performing on stages across the globe, with legions of adoring fans cheering his name. Aside from the grim reality of life in ice cream sales, the motivating factor for Rollins seems to be the fact that all of his success could be stripped away in an instant. “I’m not an actor, and after 30-some movies, you’d think Hollywood would have figured that out. I mean all of it, very sincerely, and it’s not ‘just a job’, but I’m not really good at any of this stuff.”
Continuing in his self-deprecating assessment, the former Black Flag singer attested, “I can’t hold a note. I go out on stage with just a microphone and my [laughs] modicum of intellect every night and just go ‘Look, folks, here’s where I went, here’s what I saw, and here’s how I feel about it.’ I’m no professor.” Perhaps that is why Henry Rollins fit so well into the punk rock age; he was not pretending to be anything he wasn’t, he had a message, and that was that.
