Rollins talked with the Shepherd Express about music, constanttouring and why Americawould vote for him over Ann Coulter.
Like your tour name (“Frequent Flyer”)suggests, you’ve been traveling almost constantly for years. What has inspiredtraveling to be such an important part of your life?
It’s where I get my information from.I’ve been touring since I was 20 and I’m almost 50 now, so it’s kind of what Ido and how I live and how I prefer to be moving. The world is an interestingplace and I try to stay out in it as much as I can.
Getin the Van depicted Black Flag as havingthe guts to wing it, to hit the road with little money or band equipmentnotmuch but a love of music and a sense of adventure. Do you think this exists today,or is it something we’ve lost?
I have no idea. You’d have to ask thebands. I can’t make any sweeping statements as far as why any band does whatthey do. In those days, things were a bit less organized; it was more like afrontier time. And now, touring avenues have more efficiency. Those trails thatwere blazed by early bands were deep woods and now it is kind of a four-lanehighway. I think to survive back in those days you had to have a certain senseof gusto, whereas that is not necessarily required as much now. But again, I amsure there are bands that go out and tour very hard and get put through thepaces quite a bit.
What did music mean to you in the early’80s, when you were in Black Flag, and what does it mean to you now? Has itchanged much or is it the same?
It’s a thing that I was much moreinvolved in as a player. In those days, it was pretty much the purpose of myexistence. And now there are a lot of other things going onthere’s actingstuff, radio, and a lot of writing and different projects. And there are a lotof different locations, destinations that don’t necessarily have to do with theshow; sometimes I just travel. Music is a part of it, but when I was younger itwas kind of the “it.” I still like it; it just doesn’t comprise so much of myplate as it used to.
Let’s say we’re in an alternate bizarroworld and you’re in a presidential race against Ann Coulter. Why will you win?Who would you choose as running mate?
I would win because I would bestressing all the good stuffinclusion, and a unified Americaand shewould be telling people how wrong they are, how stupid they are, how cowardlythey are. So where she would seek to divide, I would seek to do something else.But who would my running mate be? That’s a good question … I’d pick RachelMaddow.
How do you keep up with such a rigoroustouring schedule?
There are measures I take to try toalleviate stress. I try for restorative sleep. I tend to stay up late, becausemy 9 to 5 ends around midnight, so I want a few hours to wind down and thateases into the next morning. One of the things I do is try to get some sleep torecover the brain and the voice, and I try fairly often during the week to getto the gym. I run on the elliptical treadmill for an hour, and lift weights for20 or 30 minutes, and I do that four to six days a week. That’s proven to bebeneficial in keeping things focused.
I try to keep things going at a mediumpace; a marathon is what I’m going for, so there’s no need to sprint. You haveto get your head around the idea that you’re going to be doing this the nextnine months. The shows are very long, and if I meet everyone after the show,that takes a long time, so everything is kind of in a long-range mind-set andthat’s how I keep doing it. The job is to get up there every night and connectand get it across. Who wants to see a bad show? Not me.
HenryRollins’ “Frequent Flyer” tour stops at the Turner Hall Ballroom on Thursday,April 8, at 8 p.m.
