Henry Rollins Interview + Spoken Word Toronto 1989

[@schwarzblatt]

After Black Flag was dissolved, Henry basically had to start from the ground up, doing Rollins Band and spoken word to miniscule crowds in the beginning. The guy is authentic, self-made, and one of the hardest working 'artists' out there.

[@startervisions]

started from the wound up

[@Nhoward2807]

This guy has always been eloquent, brilliant, and beautiful.

[@sfacets]

The guy really mellowed out as he got older

[@mr.richardfiddler6328]

S he softened with age and lost his cynicism and anyone who says he is an asshole doesn't know shit about his life and time in black flag.

[@MrOctober44]

Lol. That's being human

[@jammadamma]

For me, the moment he put humor at the forefront of his persona (and his spoken word shows), he really took off. He took himself more seriously before. He's fucking stellar now.

[@kiarachan]

"Bono is Satan" -- thank you Mr Rollins for saying that!

[@OpheliaDarkling]

off topic...but the resemblance between young Henry here and Brandon Lee here is tripping me out. Great little time capsule here..dude is endlessly interesting...thanx for uploading it!

[@Danimal77]

It's funny to see Henry carrying notes with him onstage. He can talk your head off today (and does) but back then he was more direct and to the point and I guess still needed to reference notes because his improvisational skills might not have been fully developed yet.

[@PDauphin]

"That's hot"

[@SeriousMoonlight666]

I saw Henry on his Search n Destroy Tour. Memorable. Here, Rollins gravitates to situations that drive him physically to pain. to exhaustion...and that is where he finds meaning and insights....after he details that horrific triple layer beating he got from his mother's boyfriend at age 7 ? Obviously there is a link and that trauma has kept him locked in that experience until now. There's an underlying edge of Oslo Syndrome of unconsciously giving that beating some 'life meaning' and goodness...and possibly tied in with that same guy who beat the shit out of his 7 year old mind and body...to then cover him in kisses and tell him "I love you". Good Job City TV for allowing him to speak and not interrupting the info he let out, great interview.

[@urrrccckostan]

Galaga being played in the background. Ah, the 80s!

[@iamwar1]

yeah i saw this tour in SEP89, he did all the material about bono on the same leg of the tour. really influential to me

[@blackswaneducation3509]

Henry grew his hair long from from 83 to 86. Well.....he cut it short. You see that in 87. He had a few years to grow it to 89. Yes it's cool! He looks awesome with long hair!

[@TheRamsesII]

Keep the Henry coming, if you've got it. I have been searching endlessly for a post of Eugene Gant.

[@munobasho9]

No it's later because they talk about the Rollins Band around 14.30 and show a video, I think it's right when Rollins Band was starting out.

[@joehosier6187]

it's funny that he poked fun at Ozzy fans, but he is self admittedly a huge Ozzy and Sabbath Fan

[@mr.richardfiddler6328]

Joe Hosier it totally went over your head. Also he does not judge he even said he himself is a fan and isnt knocking them and it's pretty true what he said..

[@houseshoesbto]

thanks man

[@smashism]

Where is the rest of the show from Party Centre, Toronto April 1984? That footage at the start of this clip is amazing.

[@PaliUnderground]

Thanks for setting me straight!

[@boneappletea3858]

I swear, most of his stories get cut off on here. Drives me nuts.

[@SaltAndPepperSoldier]

Yeah! Never seen this before, thanks for the video dude! Wow the part when he tells about his "father" beating him, just wow!! O_O

[@467rtyufgjh]

Is it just me or he really looks like Brandon Lee in this interview?

[@Stitch1953]

As Howard Cosell said, "What a nice little body He has" Who cares when all this shit came out! Rollins just ROCKS!

[@TheRamsesII]

@oldTOtaper ahhh...okay. I was associating it with Reagan's 1987 speech, and of course he was only in office until '88. that was the challenge, and it was met in '89. got it.

[@Morrisseyyy]

The video where he talks about his search and destroy tattoo got taken off KZbin. Does anyone know where I can find the clip?

[@Druffmaul]

"@oldTOtaper no, the spoken word part can't be from 1989. When Flag ended in mid.1986, as you said, Rollins cut his hair, and always kept it quite short from then onward to this day." Yeah, that's how I remember it. Me and some friends went to go see him do spoken word shortly before I graduated high school, i.e. June 1987. And we were very surprised that he'd cut all his hair off. And I don't remember him ever growing it out again after that. Short of any "proof" I have to assume this long hair footage cannot be later than '87.

[@tar0286]

Search and Destroy

[@TheGreatIndoors1979]

@straightedge442 Well, I thought the interview-stuff was from a different era than the Rollins Band footage. You can see that he has a different haircut in both segments. I thought after Black Flag, Henry cut his hair short and always kept it short, but in the meantime I discovered some footage on Google video of Rollins with longer hair filmed at Poetry Art 1988, Stockholm, where he is interviewed by a woman called Malga Kubiak. It's a strange interview, but good.

[@Danimal77]

While that is true that his hair was a bit longer in October 1988. There are videos on youtube of his March 1989 live performances from Toronto where his hair is clearly short again. The interview portion here is from 1984.

[@trentigalaxy]

henry's hair here is so cool. he has hair like this now but it's silver (!), and it doesn't look bad either

[@sixxychik87]

trentigalaxy I agree. he would look so much younger if he just dyed the grey hair.

[@tombstone258]

+trentigalaxy he didnt cut his hair at all when in black flag and he cut it here hence why it looked nice

[@boobsweat9281]

He looks like a bad motherfucker with a buzzcut, whachu talkin about?

[@schwarzblatt]

He'll tear your mind out, he'll burn your soul!!!

[@xstraightedgechrisx]

Man. No comment.

[@RyanMohrOfficial]

My War

[@franzhaas5597]

Some of his writing has a tint of Bukowski in them, like when he describes a woman it's very good.

[@TheRamsesII]

@oldTOtaper '89?? when did the Berlin Wall fall?

[@JASCOBAR]

Smell for the second hand clove smoke.

[@vealito]

i can see him watching this and cutting his hair the next day .

[@stbreal]

well rollins band started in 87 so it could be from around 87-89

[@Danimal77]

The interview portion is from 1984.

[@zaqclark529]

Anyone else think he looks like jim Carrey with long hair?

[@zaqclark529]

@mo2chvc-ib8uj gen z

[@munobasho9]

1988.

[@Danimal77]

1984

[@houseshoesbto]

whats the first black flag song played on the video

[@maxwellgordon9868]

houseshoesbto my war

[@RutgerGrotius]

I think Louis-Ferdinand Céline

[@TheGreatIndoors1979]

Great stuff. But this can't be 1989, Black Flag ended mid-1986. I'm guessing this is somewhere around 1984.

[@Danimal77]

The interview portion is from 1984.

[@TheIllegalKind]

0:11 two G's

[@redcashin]

henry before the grandpa grey hair lol

[@GreenGrayRain]

BLACK FLAGG ?

[@jayiskindarad]

Sabbathians.

[@mrbasic86]

What he really meant was "I wish I was still young"

[@EarthdogGFX]

CM PUNK ROLLINS

[@PaliUnderground]

As far as I know Henry doesn't play an instrument. Good Music? "good" music is overrated. Henry has always been a decent conversationalist- most people I meet in my day to day life are terrible conversationalist, boring and completely dependent on vapid pop culture to feed their lack of intellect.

[@jayg4670]

Sex is a drug. Haha.

[@WOCDclan]

Black Flagg

[@YourTwistedDesires]

@467rtyufgjh they're both aquarius.

[@AlexTraitor]

Spoken word is not suposed to be poetry d:

[@TheMinakins]

...no, he's a LIAR!!!!

[@rubytuesday5412]

Henry you are a gorgeous piece of man but that poetry,not so much.

[@gregdahlen4375]

Tracy Catnip when I was young that really did affect me, one wants to be noticed by pretty women...........

[@rubytuesday5412]

Greg Dahlen If only we knew then what we know now.....

[@gregdahlen4375]

Tracy Catnip yeah, I guess, Tracy. I guess I still like it when a pretty girl walks past me and makes eye contact with me or seems to be looking at me. I hear there's a biological thing where a male wants to think there are lots of females available to him where he could procreate............

[@rubytuesday5412]

Greg Dahlen Hi Greg,i know what you mean.I still like the occasional wolf wistle from a guy (even tho it's meant to be P incorrect,who cares?) Theres a book called "Why Men can't knit and Women can't read Maps" (or similar) both not true but the book is really insightful,explaining why men subconsciously think they need to procreate with as many women as possible. You know like sex with random women mean nothing to men but women need to feel loved and all that blah blah... Anyhoo,that book is really insightful. Kind Regards,Tracy.

[@gregdahlen4375]

Tracy Catnip so you read the book, Tracy? Why do men subconsciously think they need to procreate with as many women as possible?

[@derekosley7890]

Wow, what bad poetry. Stick to your day job of jumping around in shorts in front of 100 latent homosexuals LOL

[@gregdahlen4375]

Derek Osley about a pretty girl walking past you and ignoring you? Not exactly poetry, but I thought it was good, I've had that experience and it does sort of affect you. Or it did when I was younger, now I just figure not everybody is going to notice you.

[@RQBtv2]

+Derek Osley Here's a tip: go fuck yourself. In fact, just fuck you. Henry Rollins is a genius, whose poetry conveys emotions in different ways than many others. Judging somebody from one early clip doesn't mean that's what all their material is.

[@sudaev]

In these stupid spoken word things, Rollins always portrays himself as put-upon, like people are picking on him. The reality is that he was a bully and violent nutcase. I don't know what his point is/was.

[@6Mega6Man6]

lol 5 years in Black Flag emotional trauma

[@kayakchrispy]

sudaev bullies were picked on...its psychology

[@ronalddreimanis8051]

Or even being a suicidal idiot that he not.

[@mr.richardfiddler6328]

sudaev you clearly have not read get in the van... the crowds he was violent with were skin head Nazis and ppl who spit on him stole the band's equipment etc if you'd take that sitting down your a pussy. Henry has also got his ass kicked plenty.. he knows how to dish out and take a beating.

[@ThomSonnyYeah]

He isn’t a nut case. He’s incredibly intelligent. I think he is a victim, from the sounds of it he had a rough childhood. I sympathise with that.

[@lanakorvin570]

He'll tear your mind out, he'll burn your soul!!!